
Qass. 



Book 



PRESENTED BY 



SOCIAL ASPECTS OF 
GREEK LIFE 

IN THE SIXTH CENTURY B. C. 



BY 
LIDA ROBERTS BRANDT, A. B. {Wellesley), A. M. {Columbia) 



DISSERTATION 

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree 

of Doctor of Philosophy, in the Faculty of Political Science, 

Columbia University 



T. C, DAVIS & SONS 
1921 




SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE IN 
THE SIXTH CENTURY B. C. 



/ 



SOCIAL ASPECTS OF 
GREEK LIFE 

IN THE SIXTH CENTURY B. C. 



BY 
LIDA ROBERTS BRANDT, A. B. {Wellesky), A. M. {Columbia) 



DISSERTATION 

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree 

of Doctor of Philosophy, in the Faculty of Political Science, 

Columbia University 



T. C. DAVIS & SONS 
1921 



t^ 



Gift 



TO THE MEMORY 



OF 



GEORGE WILLIS BOTSFORD 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGIC 

Introduction 1 1-15 

CHAPTER I 

The State in the Sixth Century 

The city-state and political diversity — Varied forms of gov- 
ernment throughout Hellas — Alilitary efficiency the basis of the 
state — The poets and political strife — Solon and his ideals for 
the state — Alcaeus and the factional strife of the nobles — 
Theognis and his defence of the old order — Political strife 
in Athens — The Greek feeling of patriotism — Citizenship and 
the duty of military service — War and warfare in the sixth 
century — The glory of war — The practices of war — Early 
instances of arbitration— Movements from the military and 
political towards the economic state — The sixth century a polit- 
ical training school 16-28 

CHAPTER n 

Social Classes 

The sixth century a conflict of classes — Athenian nobles — 
Class designation of nobles — The social classes of Athens — The 
social reforms of Solon — Solon's classification and protection 
of the classes — The social conflict in Megara — Opposition and 
compromise among the classes — The tyrants and the classes — 
Commercial classes — The lower classes — The artisan and peas- 
ant classes — The metics — Condition of foreigners in Greek cities 
— The Spartan social classification — The Perioeci — The Helots 
— Social conditions in Thessaly — The growth and extension 
of slavery — The sources of slaves — Household, agricultural, 
and industrial slaves — The treatment of slaves 2^43 

CHAPTER III 

The Status oe Women 

Summary survey of the status of women in the sixth century 
— Men poets as sources of knowledge of the life of women — 
Sappho, the greatest woman of the age — The poetesses — Other 
unusual women — Varying conditions of women in different parts 



g CONTENTS 

PAGE 

of Hellas — The physical charm of women — Their intellectual 
charm— Their moral status— Wifehood and motherhood the 
chief functions — Marriage relationships — The wedding — Mar- 
ried life — The home — The furniture — Household utensils — Daily 
duties and occupations — Devotion and duty to children — Family 
ties — Pleasures and amusements — In athletics — Dress — Rela- 
tionship to law and state — Legal restrictions upon women — 
Women and religion — The unknown multitude 44-62 

CHAPTER IV 

Men — Civic and Social Activities 

Sixth century an age of transition to peaceful civic activi- 
ties — The daily recreations of men — Divergence in Spartan 
practice — Alien influence on the habits of men — Origin of 
games and contests — Importance of games and athletic con- 
tests — The Olympic games — Rewards of the victors — The 
Pythian games — The Nemeart games — The minor or local fes- 
tivals — Special training for the games — Banquets and banquet- 
ing — Food — A banquet scene — The beginnings of the symposium 
— The feast of Cleisthenes — The uses and abuses of v>'ine — 
The "Kalos" cups — Out-of-door life — The ideal of pleasure — 
Guest-friendship 63-76 

CHAPTER V 

Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce 

General economic situation at opening of the sixth century — 
Agricultural character of preceding century — Agriculture in 
the sixth century — Development of industry along local lines — 
First steps of this development in cities — Early development 
of financial measures — Early Athenian coinage — Natural prod- 
ucts the first objects of trade — Early city centres of industry 
and commerce — Foreign influence upon industry and commerce 
— Miletus the leading city of Ionia — Phocaea the most powerful 
commercial city in Asia Minor — The growth of Ephesus — 
Aegina first in the west — Corinth and her waning supremacy — 
Chalcis — Economic importance of other, Greek cities — Commer- 
cial and industrial progress of Athens — Early influences of the 
Athenian state on the economic situation — The industrial im- 
portance of Athenian pottery^ — The manufacture of Athenian 
pottery — Intellectual and spiritual stimulus of the industrial 
and economic progress of the sixth century //-Qi 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER VI 
Religion 



PAGE 



The potency of religion in individual and social life in the 
sixth century-f-Relation of the games to religion — Festivals and 
games distinguished — Race the basis of some festivals — Spartan 
festivals — The Athenian festivals — The Eleusinian festival — 
Introduction and development of the Dionysiac festivals — 
The Orphic movement — Prophets and reformers — Hero-wor- 
ship in relation to religion — The worship of the gods — Relig- 
ious shrines places of refuge — Soothsayers — The oracles — The 
oracles open to barbarians — Oracles potent in directing public 
policies — The oracle at Delphi — Delphi and the Amphictyony — 
Religion in relation to individual morality 92-105 

Bibliography 106-109 



INTRODUCTION 

To bring together the source material relating to Greek 
society in the sixth century B.C. and to present from it a 
picture of life in that century is the purpose of this study. 
Although Greek society has not been a neglected subject, when 
it has not been treated as a composite picture of various times 
and ages, it has usually been considered with some period later 
than the sixth century as the focal point. The sixth century 
has not been made to stand out clearly by itself. An effort 
has been made here to use material that belongs unquestion- 
ably to the sixth century, and so to treat separately and in detail 
the social aspects of Greek life in the century immediately 
preceding the classical period or great age of Greece. 

The literary sources for the sixth century fall into two 
classes — those which had their origin in that century and those 
which come from a later time. No prose records have come 
down to us from the sixth century. The fragmentary remains 
of the elegiac and lyric poets, however, furnish much material 
that is useful in delineating the Greek Hf e of the period. From 
later writers material has been drawn which refers to this 
century. Many of these writers were able to draw from 
first-hand sources no longer available, and hence their evidence 
may be considered trustAvorthy. 

No complete picture of the period can be built up from any 
one of the poets, as only fragments are extant, Each, how- 
ever, contributes some material helpful in piecing together 
the Hfe and social conditions of the times. Solon, the great 
Athenian lawgiver, also the first known Athenian poet, has 
left his own records of the social and economic conditions of 
the Athens of his day, as well as his explanations of his own 
actions. Sappho's fragments, although few, are most valuable 
in throwing light on the status of women in Lesbos. Alcaeus, 
the Lesbian poet, gives pictures of various phases of Aeolic 
civilization. Anacreon reflects the life of a courtier and idler. 



12 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

Theognis of Megara in his elegiac verse shows the attitude of 
a poHtical and social reactionary of the day. Xenophanes, the 
Ionic philosopher, has left not only his philosophy but pleasing 
pictures of contemporary life. Pindar reflects the brilliance 
of the courts of the tyrants at the close of the century and 
reveals the lives and ideals of the aristocrats. The remaining 
poets are numerous,^ although the material they have left is 
little; often, however, illumination is thrown on a subject by 
a single line. 

Herodotus is the chief secondary source for this period. 
Although belonging to the fifth century, he devoted great care 
to source material that was available to him.^ From travel, 
from written records, and from tradition and reports of others, 
he sifted his material. He was not unduly credulous. He 
throws doubt on many marvelous tales even when he reports 
them. Much of the material taken from him is incidental to 
his own history. In writing his history he gives details about 
persons and places that are particularly valuable for the social 
background of the period. The Constitution of the Lacedae- 
monians, commonly attributed to Xenophon, gives the earliest 
picture extant of Spartan life. Aristotle's Constitution of the 
Athenians, in giving the political history of Athens, also throws 
light on the social and economic conditions that prevailed there, 
and thus supplements Solon. ^ 

The writings of Plutarch, Pausanias, and Strabo, though 
much later, contribute, however, somewhat to our knowledge 
of this century. These authors were familiar with the writings 
of Androtion, Philochorus, and other earlier historians whose 

1 Simonides, Bacchylides, Hipponax, Phocylides, Ibycus, Stesi- 
chorus, Corinna, Telesilla, Praxilla, Myrtis, Semonides. 

2 Herodotus used Hecataeus ; and probably Dionysius of Miletus, 
Charon of Lampsacus, Scylax of Caryanda, and others. Cf. Bury, 
J. B., Ancient Greek Historians (London, 1909), p. 66, ct seq. 

3 Aristotle used the lost successors of Hellanicus, such as Cleide- 
mus, Melanthius, Phanodemus, Androtion, and Philochorus. Cf. 
Bury, op. cit., p. 183. 



INTRODUCTION 13 

works are now lost. Plutarch's Lives of Solon and Lycurgus 
are especially valuable for Athenian and for Spartan life 
respectively. Pausanias has recorded many odd facts. Strabo's 
contribution is slight and yet not without some value. Many 
other Greek writers in a minor way contribute something to 
a knowledge of this century. 

Among the archaeological sources for the sixth century are 
vase-paintings and coins. This period was the age of the full 
development of black-figured and of the beginnings of red- 
figured Athenian ware.* Fabrics of other cities than Athens 
had not yet been crowded out of the market so that vases of 
diversified styles belonging to this age are still to be found. 
The decorations of the vases provide pictures of Greek life in 
all parts of the Hellenic world. During the century painters 
were gradually mastering the technical problem of perspective 
and gaining facility, but both the crude work of the earlier 
period and the more finished product of the later years of the 
century provide material for the student of Greek life and 
manners. While mythical scenes predominate, the setting is 
that of contemporary life. The coins of the sixth century are 
comparatively few and therefore are relatively not so impor- 
tant as the other existing material.^ Their distribution shows 
particularly the extent of commerce. The conflict between the 
Aeginetan and Chalcidic standards of currency indicates an 
interesting struggle for commercial supremacy. The artistic 
value of the coins in this age was slight. 

Epigraphic material relating to the sixth century is not ex- 
tensive. There are a few important historical inscriptions.^ 
The remaining ones fall into two classes — religious and sepul- 
chral. The latter are simple but of occasional significance. The 

4 Fowler, H. N., and Wheeler, J. R., A Handbook of Greek 
Archaeology (New York, 1901) ; also Walters, H. B., History of 
Ancient Pottery (New York, 1905). 

5 Hill, G. F., Historical Greek Coins (London, 1906); also Gard- 
ner, Percy, History of Ancient Coinage (Oxford, 1918). 

^ Hicks, E. L., and Hill, G. F., A Manual of Greek Historical 
Inscriptions (Oxford, 1901). 



14 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

former are chiefly votive inscriptions and show particularly 
the importance of the oracles and their widespread influence. 

All modern historians of Greece have touched upon the social 
aspects of this period, but no one has attempted full and sepa- 
rate treatment of it. Beloch, in his Griechische Geschichfe,'^ 
and Busolt, in his monumental history,^ have paid greatest 
attention to this period from the social and economic points 
of view. Neither of these is available in English. Francotte, 
in his valuable history of Greek industry,^ and Guiraud, in his 
economic studies of antiquity/^ have made important special 
contributions. 

The social aspects of Greek life in the sixth century to be 
treated in detail in the following chapters will cover the devel- 
opment of the state as shown in the attitude of the poets, the 
growth of social classes, the status of women, the civil and 
social activities of men, the development of agriculture, indus- 
try and commerce, and the character and influence of religion. 
The detailed facts of the period are so diversified as to admit of 
little generalization. The following summary survey, however, 
will serve to convey some definite impression of the general 
character of the period to be discussed. — (1) The political 
trend of the period is characteristic of the critical and adven- 
turous elements in Greek genius. By the sixth century, except 
in Sparta and Argos, the age of kings had passed. Not until 
the last decade of the century were there definite signs of 
democracy. But Greeks of all classes in this period were 
devoting themselves to maintaining and gaining political power. 
(2) An age of political conflict, the sixth century also tended 
to develop and differentiate the social classes. It was charac- 
terized by constant conflicts between the old aristocracy of 

"^Beloch, Julius, Griechische Geschichte, 3 vols., 2nd ed, (Strass- 
burg. 1912). 

8 Busolt, G., Griechische Geschichte, 3 vols. (2nd ed. Gotha, 1895). 

'^Francotte, Henri, L'Industric dans la Grece Ancienne (Brussels, 
1900). 

i<* Guiraud, Paul, £tudes £conomiques sur L'Antiquite (Paris, 1905). 



INTRODUCTION 



15 



birth and property and the rising commercial class, and also 
by the increase in the number of slaves. (3) The position 
occupied by women in this period of course varied according 
to the social class to which they belonged. In general, the 
freedom of the epic age was passing and women, particularly 
of the upper classes, under oriental influence, were becoming 
more restricted in their actions. Yet in this age woman, in the 
person of Sappho, attained to extraordinary preeminence and 
culture. (4) As to men, except in the case of Sparta, the 
tendency of the period on the whole was away from the mili- 
tary toward social and civic activities. With the leisure of 
peaceful days, it was possible to make an art of recreation. 
The Greek more and more found his pleasure in the palaestra 
and in the banquet hall. (5) Industrial development, culmi- 
nating in the commercial supremacy of Athens, was a marked 
feature throughout the cities of the Greek world. The growth 
of technical and artistic skill, and the extension and expansion 
of systems of coinage, were striking phases of this develop- 
ment. Tyrants and law-givers made efforts toward setting 
the state on a sure economic foundation through suitable l^s- 
lation. (6) Finally, religion and religious institutions acting 
both on the state and on the individual, through games, 
festivals and other agencies, influenced powerfully the whole 
of Greek life. From religion came during the sixth century 
an impetus to Greek art — plastic and literary, to trade and 
industry, and through the promotion of race consciousness to 
intellectual and spiritual unity. 



CHAPTER I 

The State in the Sixth Century 

By the opening of the sixth century the idea that the city- 
state, or TToXis, was the political unit was well-established.^ 
The tribal division of early times developed into a small local 
unit beyond which there was little enlargement. The preva- 
lence of the city-state became the most striking feature of the 
political organization of Hellas. ^ Individualism found ex- 
pression in government as well as in personal ideals, and above 
all other nations the Greek city-states demanded local inde- 
pendence. This political division was in part due to the 
geographical separation of the Greek communities. Before 
difficulties of communication are mastered it is hard to retain 
sympathy between peoples even most closely akin. The Greeks, 
notwithstanding their realization of racial unity as evidenced 
by the employment of the word Panhellenes^ and by the forma- 
tion of and close adherence to religious leagues,* never suc- 
ceeded in forming a political union of permanent strength. In 
the sixth century political diversity was at its height. 

lUsed by Alcaeus, 35; Theognis, 43; Solon, 2.1, etc. References to 
fragments of the lyric poets are made, except where otherwise 
stated, according to Hiller-Crusius, Anthologia Lyrica, 4th ed. (Leipsic, 
1913). 

2Zimmern, A. E., Greek Commonwealth (Oxford, 1915), passim. 

3 Archilochus, 49; also by Hesiod, Opera, ed. Rzach (Leipsic, 1902), 
fr. 26, according to Strabo. 

* Such as the Pan-Ionic, which centred at Mycale ; cf. Herodotus, 
ed. Stein, H., 2 vols. (Berlin, 1869-71), translated by Rawlinson, G., 
2 vols. (New York, 1910), I, 143, 145 et scq.; the Dorian, on the 
Triopian promontory, cf. Herodotus, I, 144; and the Delphic Amphic- 
tyony, cf. Strabo, Geographica, ed. Kramer, G., 2 vols. (Berlin, 1852), 
IX, z.y and 4.47; Herodotus, II, 180; Aeschines, Orationes, ed. Blass, 
F., (Leipsic, 1908), II, 115; III, 107. See also Botsford, G. W., 
"Amphictyony" in Encycl. Brit., xi. ed. (1910). 

16 



THE STATE IX THE SIXTH CEXTURV ly 

During this century almost every form of government ever 
known to the Greeks was to be found in the borders of Hellas. 
Sparta clung to the monarchical theory, although in reality her 
government was "a close, unscrupulous, and well-obeyed 
oligarchy."^ Among less developed peoples, such as the 
Acarnanians and Epirots, tribal organization still continued. 
Elsewhere were to be found aristocracy, tyranny, and toward 
the end of the period, the beginnings of democracy. The 
history of Athens, which passed through all these forms, is 
typical. As the power of the nobles Avho had formed the 
king's council increased, the kingship became a mere official 
position.^ Until about the middle of the seventh century the 
Eupatrids controlled the government."^ When the phalanx 
was introduced the middle class had to equip itself with heavy 
arms, and thus became influential.^ In this way a timocracy 
based on heavy infantry came into existence. This lasted 
down to the reforms of Cleisthenes, so far as officeholding was 
concerned, although the Thetes voted after the time of Solon. ^ 
As dissatisfaction continued and factions arose, in 560 B.C., 
the power was usurped by Peisistratus, leader of the party of 
the Hills, and for fifty years, with slight interruptions, Athens 
was under a tyranny. ^^ Late in the century the reforms of 
Cleisthenes introduced democratic elements which gave great 

^ Grote, George, History of Greece, 12 vols. (New York, 1865- 
1867), vol. iii, p. 359. 

6 Aristotle, Athenian Constitution, ed. Kenyon, F. G. (Oxford, 
1891), 41. 

'^ Ihid., 3; Philochorus, fr. 58. Cf. Miiller, C. and T., Fragmenta 
Historicorum Graecorum (Paris, 1841-1851), i, 394. 

8 Aristotle, Ath. Const., 4. Cf. Botsford, G. W., The Development 
of the Athenian Constitution {Cornell Studies in Classical Philology, 
vol. iv, Boston, 1893), p. 165, et scq.; p. 201. 

9 Aristotle, Ath. Const., 7. 

^^ Ibid., 13. The party of the Hills was the extreme party which 
demanded economic reforms. Cf. Botsford, op. cit., p. 155 ; Busolt, op. 
cit., ii, p. 302, et seq. 



l8 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

possibilities for future development, though some aristocratic 
features were retained. ^^ 

The independence of the Greek state was in the sixth century 
already based on military efficiency. To defend the fatherland 
was the first duty of every citizen, and it was a duty they were 
often called upon to perform. The purpose of much early 
poetry had been to summon men to martial enterprise. In 
Callinus of Ephesus {c. 700) is found the first of such stirring 
strains, — "Honorable it is and glorious for a man to fight the 
enemy in behalf of his country, his wife and his children." ^^ 
At this period the Ephesians had to defend themselves against 
the barbarian Cimmerians as well as against nearer neighbors. ^^ 
But warfare between the states, and even within them, kept 
almost all Greek cities in a state of continual preparedness. 
Sparta is of course the chief example of militarism. Of the 
early Sparta, where skill with the lyre was placed as high as 
skill with the sword, we know little.^* But it is true that when 
Sparta devoted herself to the art of war, she did not forget 
that music might be one of her chief aids in this very direction. 
Whatever the real story of Tyrtaeus may be, the poetry asso- 
ciated with his name is especially fitted to arouse the patriotism 
and fighting spirit of a people. He expresses the simple logic 
and code of honor of a fighting man, — bravery in war is the 
chief of virtues ;^^ cowardice is the greatest disgrace ;^^ to 
die for country wins honor and glory. ^''^ 

The lack of contemporary prose sources in the sixth century 
makes the reconstruction of its political history and theory a 

11 Aristotle, Ath. Const., 20, 21; Politics, trans. Jowett, B., 2 vols. 
(Oxford, 1885), III, 2.3. See also Grote, op. cit., vol. iv, p. 126 
et seq. 

12 Callinus, 1.6-7. 
^^Ibid., 3. 
i^Alcman, 60. 
15 Tyrtaeus, 10. 
i6/6irf., 8. 7ff., 9. 
^Uhid., 8. Iff. 



THE STATE IN THE SIXTH CENTURY 19 

complex problem, for it must in large part be done from 
writings of a later time. The present chapter, however, does 
not attempt such a reconstruction. It undertakes rather the 
examination of the attitude of some of the contemporary poets 
toward government and the state. As conditions differed in 
various parts of Hellas, no statements can be made which 
would be true of all places. The poets therefore must be asso- 
ciated with their own environments and periods. Yet all voice 
the poHtical unrest that was rife, and show the clash of opinioi? 
among all classes in the state. 

Solon, the Athenian poet and reformer of the early sixth 
century, attempted to establish justice and moderation as an 
ideal for the state. At the close of the seventh century the 
Athenian nobles were grinding to the earth the lower classes 
and were keeping for themselves political power as well as 
economic advantages. From Solon's own songs of party strife 
may be learned the condition of the city. "The citizens them- 
selves," he says, "persuaded by money, in their lack of wisdom, 
wish to destroy the great city. The mind of the rulers of the 
people is unjust; because of their great insolence must they 
suffer many woes. For they do not know how to hold in 
check their arrogance, nor how to enjoy the present feast in 
silence. They grow rich by obeying unjust deeds. Sparing 
neither sacred nor public property, they steal and loot, one 
here and one there." ^^ To bring order out of chaos, Solon 
went to the root of the matter. "My soul commands me," he 
said, "to teach the Athenians these things, that misrule brings 
most evils upon a city, but good rule makes everything well- 
ordered and harmonious." ^^ Solon believed that a conscien- 
tious aristocracy was the best possible form of government. 
A tyranny seemed to him no solution of the problem. The 
capabilities of the common people were from his point of view, 
however, equally unpromising. "The people had better follow 
their leaders," he said; but added, "neither with too much 

18 Solon, 2. 5-13. 
^^Ihid., 2. 31-33- ' 



20 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

freedom nor too much restraint." ^^ Expressing his ideal, he 
said, "I did not work in vain, nor did it please me to act with 
the power of a tyrant, nor that the good and the evil should 
have equal share in the rich soil of our fatherland." ^^ His 
moderation, however, pleased none of the parties, and factional 
strife brought about the conditions which enabled Peisistratus 
to make himself tyrant. 

Alcaeus of Mytilene was a member of the nobility who early 
in the sixth century fought against the new forces with all his 
might and who suffered exile rather than submit. His verses 
sounded a rally-call for 'patriots', — "for brave men are the 
defence of a city;"-^ but to Alcaeus only the nobles could be 
patriotic or brave. Fragments of his attacks on the leaders 
of the opposite party remain. He assailed harshly Pittacus, 
whose reputation has nevertheless come down to these days 
as a wise statesman and lawgiver. ''Pittacus, the worker of • 
evil to his country," — ton kakopatrida Pittakon, he calls him.^^ 
The death of the tyrant Myrsilus brought him joy. "Now let 
us drink heavily and heartily, since Myrsilus is dead," he 
sang.^^ Alcaeus, firmly convinced of the right of the nobles 
to rule, dreaded both the common people and one-man-power. 
Of Pittacus, he further said, 'This man, mad with great 
power, soon will overthrow the state." ^^ The poet's passion 
and fire, which chance has preserved to a greater extent in 
drinking songs than in political diatribes, was devoted largely 
to the service of his native city. 

Another phase of the struggle between thfe old aristocracy 
and the rising claimants for power is recorded in the poetry 
of Theognis, the grumbler of Megara, who continually laments 
that the government has fallen into the control of "the base." 

^^ Solon, 4. 1-2. 
21 /^irf., 30-31; 7-9- 
22 Alcaeus, 35. 
^^ Ibid., 42. 
^^Ihid., 8. 
2 5/6/rf., 74. 



THE STATE IN THE SIXTH CENTURY 2 1 

"Good men have never destroyed a city, but when it pleases 
the evil to vaunt themselves, they corrupt the common people 
and give the decision to the unjust, for the sake of their own 
gain and power. Hope not that such a city will long remain 
unshaken, even if now it is in peace, when such gains are dear 
to evil men as are accompanied by public hurt. From such 
men arise strife and civil bloodshed and one-man-rulers.^® 
These things are never pleasing to a city."^^ It is important to 
remember that "good" appHes only to nobles, and "evil" to 
the recently enriched industrial and commercial class. Nobles 
like Theognis fought valiantly but in vain for the old order. 
In the very face of the new era they persisted in believing, — 
"the sense of shame has perished. Insolence and pride have 
conquered justice and rule the whole earth." ^^ 

In Athens also political strife engaged the attention of all 
parties. A law of Solon had disenfranchised citizens who took 
no side in factional disputes. Unfortunately there is no evi- 
dence to show to what extent this interesting attempt to enforce 
participation in civic Hfe was carried into effect. ^^ Under the 
rule of the Peisistratidae a certain amount of interest in public 
affairs was encouraged. Peisistratus left the forms of the 
Athenian constitution unchanged, and only provided that his 
family should be represented in the college of archons. The 
council and assembly, by his skillful manipulation, acted in 
accordance with his will.^^ The spirit of revolt, however, that 
was to bring about the overthrow of the tyranny and a larger 
measure of democracy in the following age was an under- 
current gaining force. When the time came, the citizens 

26 Theognis, 52. This is the first recorded use of the term 
"monarchs" — moiinarchoi. 

^ubid.,, 43-52. 

^^Ibid., 291-2. 

29 Plutarch, Lives, trans. Stewart, A., and Long. G. (London, 
1912), Solon, 20; Aristotle, Ath. Const., 8. 

30 Holm, Adolph, The History of Greece, trans. (London, 1894), 
vol. i, p. 408; Busolt, op. cit., vol. iv, p. 326; Botsford, op. cit., 
p. 188, et seq. Herodotus, I. 59; Thucydides, VI. 54. 



22 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

proved themselves ready for the new order. "So soon as 
they got their freedom," records Herodotus, "each man was 
eager to do the best he could for himself ."^^ 

Notwithstanding all this party strife, the Greek citizen was 
bound to the service of his state by a very real feeling of 
patriotism. No definite theory of duty or obligation had yet 
been worked out, but the facts on which future political 
scientists were to build were already in existence. Exile was 
a frequent result of civil strife, yet the bitterness of separa- 
tion from the mother-land caused keen suffering. Mingled 
with the idea of devotion to the state was a love for native 
land that survived time and distance. "Not even a returned 
exile becomes himself again," says Theognis.^^ If even resi- 
dence in another Greek city had this effect, the sorrow of 
those forced to live farther from home, away from Greek 
language and customs, was still greater. Democedes, a physi- 
cian of Croton, feared finding favor among the Persians 
because they might prevent him from ever again beholding 
Greece. ^^ The Ionic Revolt owed much to the longings of 
Histiaeus for his native country ( Miletus ).^^ 

Citizenship, moreover, always implied the duty of military 
service. Often, indeed, men served in the army who did not 
have the rank of full citizens. ^^ War, however, was still a 
pleasure as well as a duty. Fighting occupied a large part of 
the life of all men, and it was adopted as a regular profession 
by the more adventurous. Archilochus, a soldier of fortune 
of the seventh century, who lived carelessly and gaily as a 
fighter and poet, exclaims : "In my spear is kneaded bread, in 
my spear is Ismarian wine, leaning on my spear, I drink."** 

31 Herodotus, V. 78. 
32Theognis, ZZZ-ZM- 
33 Herodotus, III. 129-136. 
^"^Ibid., V. 35; 106-107. 

3 5 Such as the Perioeci and Helots of Sparta under compulsion. 
Cf. Herodotus, IX. 10 seq.; 29, 85. 
36 Archilochus, 2. 



THE STATE IN THE SIXTH CENTURY 



23 



It was earlier than the period under discussion that Greeks 
had first entered the service of barbarians as mercenary sol- 
diers.^" In the sixth century, Greeks, especially lonians, 
thronged to the service of foreign masters. They served under 
the second Psammetichus early in the sixth century.^* About 
the same time Antimenidas, the brother of Alcaeus, fought in 
the service of Babylon, and returned with a tale of marvel- 
ous exploits and a sword of gold and ivory as a reward. ^^ 
When Cambyses made his expedition against Egypt {c. 525 
B.C.), he was aided by Ionic and Aeolic mercenaries,^^ who 
found themselves fighting against brother Greeks in the service 
of the Egyptian king Amasis.^^ The Greek tyrants also used 
hired soldiers. Peisistratus, for example, surrounded himself 
^vith Thracian mercenaries.^^ Polycrates of Samos, also, 
employed a large body of foreign mercenaries as well as a 
force of native bowmen. ^^ Freedom from responsibility, 
possibility of enrichment, and pure love of adventure attracted 
Greeks into the profession. 

The citizens who did not seek a military career and fought 
only for their own state had their full share of war and 
warfare in the sixth century. While civil strife may have 
predominated, and while there was nothing that could be 
compared in magnitude to the approaching conflict with the 
Petsians, many petty interstate wars occupied time and atten- 
tion. The Sacred War of the Amphictyonic Council against 

3 '7 Psammetichus I gained the Egyptian throne with the aid of 
Carian and Ionian mercenaries, about 664 B.C. Cf. Herodotus, II. 
152; Diodorus Siculus, Histories, ed. Miiller, C, (Paris, 1842), I. 
66.8; Strabo, Geographica, XVII. 1.18. 

38 Inscriptions by Greek mercenaries have been found at Abu 
Simbel in Nubia. Cf. Hicks and Hill, 3. 

39 Alcaeus, 36-37, 

40 Herodotus, II. i ; III. i, 25. 
41 /&R, III. II. 

^^Ihid., I. 64. 
^^Ihid., III. 45- 



24 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

Crisa (c. 595 j,"^^ the wars of Sparta against Argos,*^ of 
Sparta and Corinth against Samos/^ of Athens against 
Aegina/''' and of Athens against Thebes and Chalcis,^^ belong 
to this class. The sixth century Greek was often under arms. 
In Ionia the pressure of the Lydians and then of Persians 
caused frequent if not continuous warfare. Early in the 
century Alcaeus. in a much quoted passage, describes a great 
hall hung with armor, — helmets, greaves, shields and Chal- 
cidic swords. ^^ It is not probable that all houses were thus 
decked, but the Greeks of necessity lived practically all the 
time in a state of military preparedness. It had been the 
custom for the ancient Greeks to go about armed. ^^ During 
this period, even if men no longer carried arms in civil hfe, 
it was necessary to have weapons of defense always at hand. 
The arts of peace flourished as never before in the cities 
grovv'n rich by industry and trade, but as yet there could be no 
great feeling of security. 

The glory of war thus had as yet received no dimming. 
CaUinus and Tyrtaeus had earlier voiced the warrior's patri- 
otism and their spirit lived on in the poets of the sixth century. 
"For it is glorious to die in battle." echoed Alcaeus, ^^ as the 
poets of every age have done. Fallen warriors were honored 
with pubHc burial and tombstones.^- Sometimes their names 
were inscribed on a pillar set in the market-place, that coming 
generations might know their fame and remember them with 

^^Aeschines, III. 107 ef scq.; Strabo, IX. 3.4; Pausanias, Descrip- 
tion of Greece, trans. Frazer. J. G., 6 vols.. (London. 1913), IX. 
37.5-8. 

4 5 Herodotus. VL 76-83; Pausanias, II. 20.8; III. 4.1. 

4 6 Herodotus. III. 39-60. 

^Ubid., V. 81-89. 

4 8/&JU, V. 77. 

4 » Alcaeus, 56. 

50 Aristotle. Pol. II. 8.99; cf. also Thucydides. Historiae, ed. 
Boehme, G., 2 vols. (Leipsic, 1862-64), I. 5-6. 

51 Alcaeus, 14. 

52 Herodotus, IX. 85; Pausanias, I. 29.7. 



THE STATE IX THE SIXTH CEXTURY 25 

gratitude. '^^ Exemption from burdens (dreAeia), that is, 

relief from certain taxes, was decreed by cities to men whom 

they wished to honor, and valor in war was probably most 

frequently the service thus rewarded.'^* Solon deemed Tellus 

the happiest of mortals, because after years of prosperity he 

gave his life gloriously for his countr}-.'^^ Such a life was 

■most honorable for men, and such a death was most blessed. 

"The great glory of martial excellence will never perish." 

declared Theognis, "'for a warrior saves both country and 
city." 5 6 

The practices of war were now becoming standardized, and 
interstate relations were regulated in conformity to a kind of 
international law.^" War was formally "declared" by the 
announcement of a herald. The breach of this convention 
by the Aeginetans in a war against Athens is commented on 
by Herodotus. ^^ The use of champions in attempts to settle 
disputes was a noteworthy custom of the time. The Athe- 
nians and M}tilenaeans resorted to single combat in their 
contest over Sigeum, Phrynon the Athenian fighting Pittacus 
of Mytilene. Although the latter conquered, his city did not 
profit, for the matter was finally settled by arbitration.^^ The 
claim of the Spartans and of the Argives to the district of 
Thyrea was to be settled by a battle between three hundred 
men from each state. The result of this battle, which took 
place about the middle of the sixth century, was unsatisfac- 

53 Herodotus, VI. 14 (Samos). 

5-* Michel 532 == Dittenberger, I. 4; Michel, C, Recueil d'lnscrip- 
tions Grecques (Brussels. 1900) : Dittenberger. \V.. Sylloge Inscrip- 
tionum Graecarum (Leipsic, 1915). 

5 5 Herodotus, I. 30. 

5 6 Theognis, 867-868. 

57 C/. Caldwell, W.^E., Hellenic Conceptions of Peace (New York, 
1919), P- 43,. et seq. 

58 Herodotus, V. 81. 

5»Strabo, XHI. i. 38: Diogenes Laertius. De Vitis Dogmatis et 
Apophthegmatis Clarorum, ed. Huebner, H. G., 2 vols. (Leipsic, li 
Pittacus. I. 



26 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

tory, and led only to further trouble. ^^ Only one Spartan 
survived to two Argives, but the former remained on the 
field and stripped the bodies of the slain. Both sides claimed 
victory, and the war was continued. Prisoners of war were 
in general cruelly treated, either being enslaved, ^^ or kept 
in fetters until ransomed. ^^ The ransom was sometimes two 
minas a man.^^ 

There are three known cases in the century where differ- 
ences between states were settled by arbitration.^^ About 600 
B.C., the quarrel of Athens and Mytilene over Sigeum was 
settled by Periander of Corinth on the basis of the status 
quo.^^ A question of the boundaries between Arcadia and 
Elis was arranged according to the decision of Pyttalus, an 
Elean, about 572 B.C.^^ Towards the end of the century 
the Corinthians arbitrated between Athens and Thebes on 
the question as to whether Plataea might be forced into the 
Boeotian League, and decided against Thebes. ^''^ Another 
sign of the growth of international relations is the importance 
of the office of proxenos.^^ A proxenos was the official 
representative of another people at his own city. He aided 
especially those citizens of the other country who came to 
his city for commercial purposes and represented them in the 
law courts. The institution was an outgrowth of the old 

60 Herodotus, I. 82; Strabo, VIII. 6.17; Pausanias, II. 38.5. 

61 Herodotus, I. 66 (Lacedaemonians on Tegean plain); Ibid., III. 
39 (Lesbians at Samos). Cf. Phillipson, C, The International Law 
and Custom of Ancient Greece and Rome) 2 vols. (London, 191 1), 
vol. ii, p. 251, et seq. 

62 Herodotus, V. 77 (Chalcidic prisoners at Athens). 
^^Ibid., V. 77; VI. 79. 

64 Cf. Raeder, A., U Arbitrage International ches les Hellenes (New 
York, 1912), pp. 20-24, 143-147. 

65 Herodotus, V. 95; Strabo, XIII. 1.38; Diog. Laert., Pittacus, i. 

66 Pausanias, VI. 16. 8. 

67 Herodotus, VI. 108; Thucydides, III. 55. 
68Kaibel, G., Epigrammata Graeca (Berlin, 1878), 179. 



THE STATE IN THE SIXTH CENTURY 



27 



practice of guest-friendship. The office was held by a man 
of importance and ability. Pindar, for example, was made 
Proxenus for Athens at Thebes because of his praise of 
Athens. ^^ Treaties of alliance between states were also made, 
such as that between the Eleans and the Heraeans. This 
treaty, made sometime between 550 and 500 B.C., was to 
last a hundred years, and was placed under the protection of 
Olympian Zeus."^^ Thales of Miletus proposed even closer 
cooperation. He advised the lonians of Asia Minor to estab- 
lish a single seat of government at Teos, and thus join in a 
kind of confederation which would have allowed, however, 
local autonomy to each city.'''^ The recommendation was 
rejected, and, divided, the Ionic states soon fell before the 
Persian advance. 

These movements just noted illustrate a tendency that was 
beginning to gain in force, — a new disposition to maintain 
peace. In reaHty this tendency was a movement from the 
military and political towards the economic state. • The possi- 
bilities of industrial and commercial expansion were now 
being realized, and it was becoming evident that peace and 
prosperity went hand in hand. With increasing wealth men 
found life too comfortable to care to leave it for the battle 
in which their ancestors had delighted. Theognis wished — 
"May peace and wealth fill the city, that I may revel with 
others, for I do not love evil war. Do not give ear, when the 
herald shouts loud, for we are not fighting for our father- 
land." '^^ But he had the grace to add, "It is shameful for 
men, when present and mounted on swift horses, not to look 
upon tearful war.""^* Anacreon, surrounded by the pomp 
and luxury of a tyrant's court, preferred to sing of love and 

^^Isocrates, Orationes, ed. Benseler, G., 2 vols. (Leipsic, 1851), 
XV. 166. 

■^0 Hicks and Hill, 9 =z Michel, i = Dittenberger, I. 9. 

71 Herodotus, I. 170. 

72 Theognis, 885-888. 
73/&irf., 889-890. 



28 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

wine rather than of martial glory. He followed the literary 
fashion set by Archilochus and Alcaeus and threw away his 
shield.'''^ Yet he scornfully says, "Once of old there were 
brave Milesians," "^^ implying that he saw degeneracy in a 
people who bargained with the barbarians, and who preferred 
economic prosperity to war. As civilization grew more com- 
plex, the advantages accruing from peace were more plainly 
seen, but the honor and glory of war were still evident to a 
people who drew their greatest inspiration from Homer. 

The sixth century was a political training school for the 
future. Said Simonides, — ttoAis avBpa StSao-Kw — "the city is 
the school-master of man.""^^ The Greek city-state became 
the school-master of mankind. But the men of this period 
threw themselves into active participation in affairs of state 
not because they were mindful of the future, but because the 
state offered the greatest field for adventure and achieve- 
ment. 

"^^Archilochus, 5; for Alcaeus, see Herodotus, V. 95; Anacreon, 24. 

7 5 Anacreon, 81. 

"^^ Simonides of Ceos, 50. 



CHAPTER II 

Social Classes 

The sixth century was the age of conflict between the old 
aristocracy of birth and landed property and those of the 
commons who by their ability had acquired wealth and power. 
At the opening of the period the nobles were almost every- 
where in political and social control, but in the course of the 
century they gradually lost their old preeminence, and by its 
close the age of democracies was at hand. The seventh 
century had seen the rise of an industrial and commercial 
class which gradually came to the fore, although society still 
rested largely on an agricultural basis. ^ The advent of this 
new class everywhere caused revolutionary movements. The 
reactionary nobles resisted change in vain. In Lacedaemonia 
a unique social structure prevailed, which will be treated 
separately. The corresponding classes in the other Hellenic 
states had much in common. 

■ The nobles in the early sixth century of whom most is known ' 
are those of Athens. From Solon's own writings as well as 
from later authors it is possible to draw a picture of society 
before his reforms and to understand what social purposes the 
reformer endeavored to accomplish. In Athens as well as in 
other states the nobility rested on the double basis of land 
ownership and descent from the original settlers. As mythi- 
cal lines of descent were easily invented, the real power was 
based on possessions. But apparently only those who for 
some generations at least had maintained the traditions of 
family were able to hold large property in lands. A certain 
section of society was growing wealthy through commerce. 
Some of these adventurers belonged to the old nobility of 
birth. The others had more or less difficulty, varying in 
different states, in making their way into the aristocracy ofj 
power. 

1 Busolt, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 197 et seq. 

29 



30 



SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 



In some states the nature of the nobles was indicated by 
the name which designated their class. The Athenian nobles 
were called Eupatridae, or the well-born. ^ In Syracuse the 
nobles were known as Geomori, or land-holders.^ In Samos 
the appellation was the same* The rich men of Chalcis, who 
controlled the government, were called Hippobotae, or horse- 
keepers.^ 

The Athenian social situation, it seems probable, was typical 
of many others. Hesiod's picture of rural life in Boeotia a 
century earlier gives the impression of a hard-working people 
down-trodden by unjust and cruel "kings." ^ Much the same 
condition seems to have prevailed at Athens at the close of the 
seventh century. The Athenian citizens originally consisted 
of three classes, — ^the Eupatridae; the Georgi, or Aegicores, or 
small-landed proprietors; and the Demiourgi, or artisans.''' In 
the seventh century a hoplitic timocracy gave the franchise 
to all who could provide heavy armor, but only those who 
could meet certain higher property qualifications might hold 
office.^ The Thetes, or poorest class, were entirely excluded 
from the government. Not merely their political, but still 
more their economic subservience aroused the people to the 
agitation which led to the Solonian reforms. Aristotle says: 
"The poor, — men, women, and children, served the rich. They 
were known as Pclatae, and also as Hectcniori, because they 
cultivated the lands of the rich at a rent (of a sixth part of 
the produce). The whole country was in the hands of a few 

2Xenophon, Works, trans. Dakyns, H. G. (London, 1892), Sym- 
posium, 8.40; cf. Busolt, op. cit., vol. i, p. 93 et seq. 

3 Herodotus, VII. 155; Marmor Parium, z^ {Cf. Miiller, op. cit., 
I. 548). 

^Thucydides, VIII. 21. 

5 Herodotus, V. 77; Strabo, X. 1.8. 

^Hesiod, Works and Days, 202, 248, etc. 

7 Aristotle, Ath. Const., 13; cf. Botsford, Development of Athen- 
ian Constitution, p. 153. 

8 Aristotle, Ath. Const., 4. 



SOCIAL CLASSES 31 

persons, and if the tenants failed to pay their rent, they were 
liable to be haled into slavery, and their children with them. 
All loans were secured upon the debtor's person."^ The 
same story is told by Plutarch, ^^ except that he describes the 
Hectemori as men who were "obliged to pay one-sixth of the 
profit (of their farms) to creditors." Both of these state- 
ments may be true, for doubtless some of the peasants had 
fallen into actual serfdom, while other were still free tenants. 
The smaller farmers were not only losing their land, but their 
personal freedom as well, and the situation demanded impera- 
tive treatment. ^^ 

It was this economic situation in the time of Solon that 
led to various social reforms. Solon, who by ''birth and repu- 
tation was one of the foremost men of the day, but in wealth 
and position was of the' middle class," ^^ was chosen Archon 
by general consent, and the revision of the constitution was 
given into his hands. ^^ Instead of becoming actual tyrant, as 
he might have done, he instituted reforms and then resigned, 
even leaving the country that he might not be called upon to 
further interpret the new constitution.^* Solon first cancelled 
all debts which had been made upon the security of the person 
or on land, and declared free all those who had fallen into 
slavery for debt.^^ He brought back to Athens those who 
had been sold into slavery abroad, ^^ and forbade in future 
the contracting of debts on the security of the person. ^^ 
According to Androtion, as quoted by Plutarch, he merely 

9 Aristotle, Ath. Const., 2. 

10 Plutarch, Solon, 13. 

11 Solon, 2. 5-26. 

12 Aristotle, Ath. Const., 5. 
^^Ibid.; Plutarch, Solon, 14. 

14 Aristotle, Ath. Const., 11; Solon, 30-31 -7, 8. 

15 Plutarch, Solon, 15; Aristotle, Ath. Const., 6; Philochorus, fr. 
57 {Cf. Miiller, op. cit., I. 393)- 

16 Solon, z6.6. 

17 Plutarch, Solon, 15; Aristotle, Ath. Const., 6. 



32 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

reduced debts by lowering the rate of interest and by the 
adoption of the Chalcidic standard of coinage. It seems prob- 
able that some debts (t. e., on the person) were entirely 
cancelled. ^^ 

Plutarch declares that Solon was the first to take a census 
and to classify the people as Pentacosiomedinini, Hippeis, 
Zeugitae, and Thetes.^^ But Aristotle says this classification 
had been used before Solon, and that the law-giver merely 
reassigned the population to these old classes, and changed 
the rights and privileges of each.^^ The most important 
change was the admission of the Thetes to the Assembly and 
to the juries. Solon believed that the balance of power should 
still remain with the aristocrats, but that the lower classes 
should at least have justice. "The commons," he says, "had 
better follow their leaders, and neither be given too much 
rein nor yet be oppressed. For satiety breeds insolence when 
great wealth comes to men whose minds are not fitt'^d for 
it."^^ That the law should not remain the exclusive pos- 
session of the nobles, he had the new laws inscribed on pillars 
and set up in the King's Porch. ^^ But the moderation of 
Solon, as has already been pointed out, did not please either 
class. The nobles did not wish to give up any of their old 
privileges, and the poor had hoped for still more radical 
measures, such as the redistribution of lands. ^^ 'T gave the 
commons," records Solon, "as much power as sufficed, neither 

^^ Cf. Busolt, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 259, Note 2. 

19 Plutarch, Solon, 18. Pentacosiomedimni = 500 medimni men; 
Hippeis = 300; Zeugitae = 200; Thetes = below 200. 

20 Aristotle, Ath. Const., 7. Beloch {op. cit., vol. i, p. 366) thinks 
that the Pentacosiomedimni were created by Solon, but that the 
other classes existed before his time. Botsford (op. cit., p. 164, 
et seq.) says that redistribution was necessary because of the con- 
fusion of the economic situation. Cf. Busolt, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 265, 
Note 4. 

21 Solon, 4. 

22 Aristotle, Ath. Const., 7; Plutarch, Solon, 25. 
2^ Ibid., 13. 



SOCIAL CLASSES 33 

detracting from their honor nor adding thereto. As for those 
who possessed might and were illustrious in wealth, for them 
I planned that they should suffer naught unseemly. I stood, 
too, with my shield about both parties, suffering neither to gain 
an unjust victory."^^ The quarreling between the classes, 
however, went on and later enabled Peisistratus to seize the 
tyranny. 

In Megara also, about fifty years after Solon, the nobles 
were obliged to face a crisis. Upstarts who had grown rich 
through industry and trade were proving that wealth was 
more powerful than birth, and the old aristocracy found that 
their supremacy rested on no sure foundation. In the laments 
of Theognis may be found the attitude of a typical noble, who 
believed firmly in the good old social order. The nobles he 

identified with ''the good" (ot ayaOot, ol eaOXoi, or ot (^eXriaToL ), 

while he called the commons or rich commercial class "the 
base" ( ot KaKoi , or ot SetAot ). Wealth in the hands of the 
commons upset all his ideas of the fitness of things. "For 
verily it is fitting," he asserts, "for the bettermost to have 
wealth indeed, but poverty is proper for a mean man to 
bear. "2^ ' The state, in his opinion, had indeed degenerated. 
"This state is still a state indeed, but its people truly are 
changed. Those who aforetime knew nor rights nor laws, but 
were wont to wear out goat-skins about their sides, and to 
inhabit this city, like stags, without the walls, are in these 
days noble. But they who were bettermost of yore, now are 
of low degree." ^^ To Theognis the world was upside down. 
Some of the nobles, like Theognis, would condescend to no 
compromise and maintained "with these we will not exchange 
our excellence for their wealth ; for excellence is ever secure, 
but riches now one and now another of men possesses."^'' 
They thought, as did Solon, that the lower classes did not 

24 Solon, 3. 

25 Theognis, 525-526. 
^^Ibid., 52-SS. 

27 Theognis, 316-318. 



34 



SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 



know how to use wealth when once they had gained it.^* 
But others of the nobles were quick to see what advantages 
might be obtained by joining forces with the rich. Marriages 
between the two classes became frequent, though they shocked 
the conservative Theognis. " Tis wealth they value ; noble 
man weds mean man's daughter, and mean man the daughter 
of the noble. Then marvel not that the race of citizens is 
obscured, for noble is mixed with base."^^ By the end of the 
century the two classes had probably amalgamated and joined 
in their efforts to keep those still poorer in their proper 
places. The rise of aristocracy of wealth which forgets its 
origin and in turn oppresses the unfortunate is thus an old 
phenomenon. 

While the tyrants represent a phase of the opposition to the 
old nobiHty, their courts took over many essentially aristo- 
cratic characteristics. In the odes of Pindar may be seen 
how a new nobility was built up with the old class pride and 
exclusiveness. The military virtues were cultivated. Art and 
letters were patronized. The court at Syracuse was typical 
of many others. Polycrates of Samos and the Peisistratidae 
at Athens were centres of such circles. In order to break 
down the pohtical and social power of the old nobility, the 
tyrants took measures that made for democratization. At 
Athens, for example, the new or elaborated festivals with their 
recitations of Homer and musical contests were important 
factors in the education of the people. The tyrants were 
practical men of affairs and knew the value of keeping happy 
the lower classes. Peisistratus, by dividing up estates of the 
nobles, founded a class of peasant proprietors.^^. 

With the growing importance of industry and trade a 
commercial class came into importance in each city. At first 
a middle class grew up between nobles and peasants.'^ In 



28 Theognis, 321-322; Solon, 4. 3-4. 

2» Theognis, 189-192. 

30 C/. Busolt, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 327 et seq. 

s^Guirard, Paul, op. cit., p. 50. 



SOCIAL CLASSES 



35 



cities where this occurred, such as Athens, the government 
became in time democratic. ^^ Elsewhere the old nobility 
entered trade, and the power remained in the hands of the 
old aristocracy, which, however, had become commercial.*^ 
This was the case in Corinth and Aegina. The commercial 
classes were the most progressive element in the state, and tQ 
them is due a large measure of the advancement of this period. 

The literature of the sixth century is so far concerned with 
the habits of life, aims and ideals of the upper classes, that 
knowledge of the rest of the population is dependent on mere 
scraps of information. The lower classes are known only as 
they were related to the nobles, or to the laws and protection 
of the state, or to the observances of religion, but rarely are 
they to be seen in the light of their own estimate. Still they 
cannot exactly be called inarticulate. This is precluded by the 
artistic handiwork of the artisans, such as the potters. But 
literature still belonged to the few, so in the sixth century there 
is little hint of the growth in ability which was to make possible 
the democracy of the fifth century, though such an evolution 
was surely taking place. Glimpses of ordinary life are caught 
in vase paintings, but rarely is it heard about in literature. 

In the laws of the time, however, it is made evident that 
the artisan and peasant classes were of importance to the 
state. The tyrants Cypselus and Periander encouraged com- 
merce and thereby aided the growth of the middle class. They 
also helped the peasants by dividing the confiscated estates of 
the nobles. Realizing the necessity for maintaining an agri- 
cultural class, they made and enforced laws forbidding peas- 
ants to settle in the city. Periander attempted to maintain a 
large free industrial population by regulating slave traffic.** 
Solon placed the commercial future of Athens on a firm foun- 
dation by directing the attention of the people to the manufac- 

32 C/. Meyer, Eduard, Kleine Schrifien (Halle, 1910), p. 119. 
33Beloch, op. cit., vol. i, p. 222. 

34Heracl. Pont., Polit. 5, in.Miiller, II. 213; Nic. Dam., fr. 59, 
in Miiller, III. 393. 



36 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

turing industries and the production of oil, forbidding the 
export of all other products of the soil.^^ To aid the artisan 
class he also encouraged immigration, regulated the currency, 
and directed that the Areopagus punish those who did not live 
by their own labor. During the sixth century Corinth declined 
while Athens rose in power, but the change in the Corinthian 
situation was probably not evident until late in the century. 
At first it was rather that Athens progressed more rapidly than 
Corinth than that the latter receded. The decline of Corinth 
was perhaps due in part to the fact that the state attempted 
to control commerce and industry for her own benefit, rather 
than for individuals.^^ The widespread distribution of Athe- 
nian pottery and the lessening importance of Corinthian fabric 
are evidence of the change. 

One more class of importance in the Greek cities must be 
mentioned. The metics or resident aliens must have every- 
where, except in Lacedaemonia, formed an important section 
of the population. Unsettled political conditions had sent some 
men into enforced or voluntary exile. Enlarged commerce 
had made travel more frequent and more natural, and as 
craftsmen or traders many men were led to change their 
place of residence. The tyrants were quick to see the advan- 
tages accruing from the addition of such an element to their 
population. Solon's treatment of them is well known. He 
allowed those who were exiled for life from their native city 
or who transferred themselves and their families to Athens 
to practice their trades there to become Athenian citizens.^'' 
Such generosity with the citizenship was unfortunately with- 
drawn later, and this withdrawal accounts for the large number 
of metics in Athens in the fifth and later centuries. But in 
the sixth century the majority of the foreigners probably 
soon became members of the citizen body. Cleisthenes, 
according to Aristotle, enrolled resident aliens among the 

''^ 5 Plutarch, Solon, 22, 24; Cf. Botsford, op. cit., p. 177 ct seq. 
36Francotte, op. cit., vol. i, p. 108. 
S"^ Plutarch, Solon, 24. 



SOCIAL CLASSES 



37 



citizens. ^^ Later those foreigners who did not avail them- 
selves of this opportunity are said to have been forbidden to 
work in the agora, except on the payment of a special tax.^^ 
That many foreigners plied their trades at Athens may be 
realized by the number of potters who had foreign, especially 
Oriental, names. *^ 

As to the condition of foreigners in other Greek cities less 
is known. Polycrates held out inducements to attract them 
to Samos. He gathered artisans about him for great pay.'*^ 
Whether they might attain to citizenship in other states than 
Athens, and if so, under what conditions, is not known. 
Sparta, with her usual conservatism, frowned on the settling 
of outsiders within her borders, unless they came for useful 
purposes, and expelled those whose presence was not con- 
sidered beneficial to the state. In Sparta "useful" was much 
more limited in its meaning than in other states. Workers in 
artistic trades are said to have been expelled in an early 
period. ^^ Moreover, the restrictions imposed upon trade by 
iron money would not attract men from other parts of Greece 
to come for business purposes. In addition. Spartan citizens 
were not likely to become resident aliens elsewhere, both 
because they despised industry and trade, and because their 
movements were regulated and restrained by the govern- 
ment. ^3 

In Lacedaemon the social classification that prevailed was 
unique. The Spartan government controlled three separate 
classes, — the Spartan citizens, who were divided into nobles 
and commoners, the Perioeci, and the Helots. The Spartans 

38 Aristotle, Pol. III. 2.3. 

3 » Demosthenes, ed.. by Blass, F., 4th ed., 3 vols. (Leipsic, 1891)^ 
Euhul. 34. 

^^ Cf. Walters, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 273 et seq. 

^lAthenaeus, Deipnosophistae, ed. Weidmann (Leipsic, 1827), XII. 
57. 

42 Plutarch, Lycurgiis, 9, 26. 

43Xenophon, Pol. of Lac, 104. 



38 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

were freemen who devoted their time to the manly occupa- 
tions of war and hunting.*^ Although citizens and members 
of the assembly, most of them had little part in the control 
of the government, which was a close oligarchy. Their edu- 
cation was designed to make them fearless, crafty, and un- 
thinking in their devotion and obedience to the state, and it 
succeeded remarkably well. The necessary labor in the fields 
and in the house was done for them by the Helots. Trade 
was forbidden them. They lived always in a condition of 
mihtary preparedness. The women of their class were im- 
bued with the same ideals of hardiness, courage, and loyalty. 
To maintain their place in the citizen body Spartans had to 
furnish their proper share in the common meals. If they 
were unable to do this, they lost their privileges, and fell into 
an inferior class, being known as Hypomeiones.^^ At the 
time of the Persian War there were about 8000 Spartans. 
Herodotus says that at this time "the whole number of the 
Lacedaemonians is very great and many are the cities which 
they inhabit."*^ 

The Perioeci were the occupants and citizens of the towns 
other than Sparta. According to Strabo there were anciently 
a hundred cities in Laconia.^'^ The Perioeci served in the 
army as fully equipped warriors. ^^ To them fell the task 
of carrying on the necessary manufacturing and trade through- 
cut Lacedaemon. In Sparta they were accounted as friends 
and allies. ^^ While their subservient position in regard to 
Sparta is shown by their obligation to mourn at the death of 
a Spartan king, their freedom is illustrated by the fact that 
they took part in Greek festivals and games. ^^ The good 

i 4^ Plutarch, Lycurgus; Xenophon, Pol. of Lac, passim. 
4 5Xenophon, Hellenica, III. 3.6. 
4 6 Herodotus, VII. 234. 
47 Strabo, VIII. 4-11. 
4 8 Herodotus, IX. 10. 
4 9 Plutarch, Cleomenes, 10; Aratns, 38. 
50 Herodotus, VI. 58; Pausanias, III. 22.7. 



SOCIAL CLASSES 



39 



relations between them and the Spartans and their loyalty 
to Sparta are accounted for by Niese on the ground that they 
shared three important things, — nationality, speech, and 
religion. ^^ They were also due in part to the privileges just 
mentioned. 

The Helots of Lacedaemon can best be described as state- 
serfs. They were attached to the soil and could not be 
sold out of the country. ^^ Many were engaged in agricul- 
tural labor. Others performed more personal service for the 
Spartans, such as fell to the lot of slaves in other states. 
The Helots, indeed, were slaves to all intents and purposes, 
but they belonged to the state as a whole rather than to the 
individual citizens. ^^ In war they attended the Spartans, on 
one occasion at least in the proportion of seven Helots to 
each Spartan. ^^ On the same expedition there was one Helot 
to each of the Perioeci.^^ They served as light-armed soldiers. 
Those who fell in battle were buried separately. ^^ For 
unusual service or bravery occasional Helots were set free. 
Such freed Helots were known as Neodamodeis.^'^ The 
Spartans, however, feared those who displayed courage or 
initiative and made every effort to get rid of them. A regular 
method of elimination was by the Crypteia — a war declared 
by the Ephors and waged by the young Spartans against the 
most formidable of them.^^ In later times, as they revolted 

^1 Niese, Neiu; Bevtrdge zur Geschichte und Landeskunde Lake- 
daemons (Berlin, 1906), pp. 101-142. This article is a most important 
one for the study of the Perioeci. Niese concludes that there v/ere 
no racial differences between the Perioeci and Spartans. Cf. Busolt, 
op. cit., vol. i, p. 519, Note i. 

s^Strabo, VIII. 5.4. The much disputed question as to the origin 
of the Helots does not enter into the field of this study. 

54 Herodotus, IX. 10. This was in 479 B.C. 

^^Ibid., IX. 29. 

^^Ihid., IX. 85. 

57Xenophon, Hellenica, VI. 5.28; Thucydides, V. 34; VII. 58. 

58 Plutarch, Lycurgus, 2S. 



i40 



SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 



again and again, treatment of them grew harsher. '^^ But at 
no period was their lot enviable. 

In Thessaly conditions somewhat resembled those in Lace- 
daemon. The feudal aristocracy of Thessaly and Macedon 
maintained longest the Homeric customs of life. The nobles 
passed their time in w^ar, hunting, and feasting. Their virtues 
were those of bravery and hospitality.^^ The ruling class 
was supported by the labor of agricultural serfs, known as 
Pcnestae, who could not be sold out of the country nor be 
put to death. ^^ These serfs paid a tax on the land they culti- 
vated instead of a percentage on the crop, and in good years 
w^ere thus enabled to make money. Military service was 
required of them. Some of the surrounding tribes conquered 
by the Thessalians, such as the Phthiotians, Magnetes, and 
Perrhaebi, maintained a partial independence, as is shown by 
their participation in the Amphictyonic Council. ^^ They thus 
have some resemblance to the Perioeci of Lacedaemon, and 
that name is indeed given them by Xenophon.^^ 

The sixth century is the period in which the institution of 
slavery became important throughout Greece. Like many 
other features of Greek Hfe, it came in its more extensive 
development from the East. The growth of industry de- 
manded an increased number of workmen. Profit from indus- 
try enabled the freemen who engaged in it to purchase and 
use slaves. In the seventh century Miletus made a success of 
her textile industry, and in it employed ever larger numbers 
of women slaves. As the metal working and pottery trades, 
manufacturing for export as well as for home use, grew 
larger, the number of men slaves increased. The custom of 
thus using slaves spread throughout Ionia, to the Islands, and 

59 Plutarch, Lycurgus, 27. 

60 Herodotus, V. 18. 

61 Aristotle, Politics, II. 9.2; Athenaeus, VI. 87. 

62 Aristotle, Politics, II. 9.3; Thucydides, II. loi ; IV. 78; Aeschines, 
II. 116. 

6SXenonbon, Hcllcnica, VI. 1.19. 



SOCIAL CLASSES 41 

to Greece proper. Instead of slaves being few and used only 
for agricultural labor and household service, by the sixth 
century they formed an ever increasing proportion of the 
population. Tradition said the people of Chios were the 
first who bought slaves for money, — a tale which was doubt- 
less the result of a large slave population at an early date.^* 

Slavery grew most rapidly in the cities where industry 
flourished. In agricultural communities it had a much slower 
development. Miletus, Corinth, Chalcis, and Aegina were 
naturally centres with many slaves. Periander of Corinth is 
said to have tried to limit the slave trade in order to aid free 
workmen and to enforce that favorite measure of rulers of 
the period, forbidding idleness. ^^ Solon made the same 
attempt and is said to have drawn the idea from Amasis of 
Egypt. ^^ Not until Athens rose to preeminence toward the 
end of the sixth century did her slave population become 
large. ^'^ 

The sources whence slaves came were various even in this 
early period of development of the institution. Before the 
reforms of Solon slavery for debt was common in Attica and 
doubtless in other Greek states. ^^ Until forbidden by Solon 
men could apparently sell their sisters and daughters into 
slavery at will.^^ Exposed infants became the property 
of anyone who rescued them. At times slavery was legal 
punishment. "^^ Prisoners of war also became slaves unless 
they were ransomed. Polycrates of Samos used Lesbians thus 
captured to build fortifications."^^ They worked in fetters, as 

64 Theopompus, f r. 134. Cf. Miiller, op. cit., I.300. 
65Heracl. Pont., Polit. 5 {Cf. Miiller, II. 213); Nic. Dam. fr. 59 
(C/. Miiller, III. 393). 

66 Plutarch, Solon, 22; Herodotus, II. 177; Diodorus, I. 77.5. 

67 It was then reduced by the act of Cleisthenes giving the citizen- 
ship to a number of slaves. Aristotle, Politics, III. 2,3. 

68 Plutarch, Solon, 15; Aristotle, Ath. Co-tjf., 6. 

69 Plutarch, Solon, 23. 

70 Nic. Dam., fr. 129.2 (Cf. Miiller, III. 461). 

71 Herodotus, III. 39, 



42 



SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 



did the Lacedaemonians whom the Tegeans took prisoners. "^^ 
The fetters by which Chalcidic and Boeotian captives were 
bound until ransomed were long treasured by the Athenians.''^ 
Gelon sold abroad as slaves the common people of Megara 
Hyblaea, and of Euboea in Sicily.'''^ Men who fell prey to 
pirates could hope for nothing better than slavery. Raids to 
distant places for the purpose of kidnapping slaves belong for 
the most part to a later period. In Asia Minor there were 
more barbarian slaves than in Greece proper. Hipponax 
speaks of Phrygian slaves who ground barley at Miletus. '^^ 
There seem to have been few or no slaves in Lacedaemon, 
where their place was filled by the Helots. 

Slaves were put to three general uses. Some, by far the 
smallest number, were household slaves. They were cooks, 
weavers, nurses, and so on, and formed an integral part of 
the family. Only the rich, however, enjoyed their services. 
Much of the household work was done by the women of the 
family. Tradition told of a time when the Greeks had no 
household slaves, and while that day was past, the period 
when the Greeks became largely dependent on slaves for 
manual labor had not appeared. "^^ Other slaves were used 
in agricultural work, for the cultivation of the grain, the vine, 
and the other staple necessities of life. On small estates these 
slaves must also have been closely related to the family life. 
Finally slaves were used in industry, — ^in the work-rooms 
where pottery was made, in blacksmiths' and goldsmiths' and 
silversmiths' shops, in small ^'factories" where cloth was 
woven or leather goods made. A vase a little later than this 
period illustrates a pottery, and shows that about seven people, 
slave and free, were employed under the direction of a super- 

"72 Herodotus, I. 66. 
73 7^,/^.^ V. 77- 
'^'^Ihid., VII. 156. 
7 5 Hipponax, 43. 
76 Herodotus, VI. 137. 



SOCIAL CLASSES 43 

intendent.'^''' It is known that in the trades freemen and 
slaves worked side by side even in later centuries. "^^ 

While the slaves remained comparatively few and relations 
with the master could be intimate, they were on the whole 
well-treated. The Athenian slaves who attended their masters 
and fell in the war with Aegina late in the sixth century, were 
given a public burial and tombstone. "^^ It is true that pris- 
oners of war were cruelly treated, but they were exceptional. 
To guard against danger they were set to work in chains, or 
employed in the mines, — a form of slavery that was particu- 
larly dreaded. Revolt might always be looked for among 
them, for by birth they were free and brave. The broken 
spirit that resulted from slavery was recognized and advantage 
taken of it. "Never is a slavish head erect, but always 
crooked, and has the neck askance," says Theognis.^^ "For 
neither from the squill do roses or hyacinths spring, no, nor 
ever from a bondwoman a free-spirited child." Yet the real 
evil of slavery, in its effects on either the free or the slave 
population, was not yet evident. ^^ 

'^'''Walters, op. cit., vol. i, fig. 70 (One of the workmen is being 
beaten, which must mean that he is a slave). 

'^^Ibid., vol. i, p. 233. 

"^^ Pausanias, I. 29.6. 

soTheognis, 535-538. 

81 The evils ultimately arising from slavery are discussed by Eduard 
Meyer in his article on slavery in his Kleine Schriften. 



CHAPTER III 
The Status of Women 

In the sixth century as well as in the seventh Greek women 
of the better class held a place midway betweeen the positions 
occupied by the women described by Homer and those of the 
classical period. They no longer enjoyed the freedom which 
the simplicity of earlier society had made possible, but they 
were not yet limited by the restrictions that caused the infe- 
riority of women in the great period of Greece. The sixth 
century was a period of political and economic development 
which opened to men new fields of endeavor and offered them 
such opportunities for expression of personality as had never 
before been presented. The relationship of Greek women to 
this age of progress was different. The growth of civiliza- 
tion tended to restrict their action and thereby narrow their 
interests. The epic age of freedom had passed. With oriental 
influence came the custom of segregating women, which the 
Ionic peoples in particular adopted. The position of Dorian 
women was little if at all changed from earlier times. In 
Aeolic Lesbos, however, an unusually liberal spirit prevailed, 
which made possible the development of such a genius as 
Sappho. Here the great passion of the age, expression of 
personality, was shared by the women as well as by the men, 
and this led to their attaining extraordinary preeminence in 
intellectual life and culture. Women of the lower classes 
everywhere enjoyed freedom of movement, but the tendency 
to restrict upper class women to their homes and duties there 
was beginning to take shape. The industrious housewife and 
mother, whom Semonides of Amorgus had praised, was 
becoming fixed as the ideal of womanhood.^ 

Besides Sappho and the other women writers, the chief 
contemporary sources of this period are all men, who reflect 

1 Semonides, 7. 83-93. 

44 



THE STATUS OF WOMEN 45 

various attitudes toward women and their place in the world. 
Semonides, in a satire which is one of the bitterest ever directed 
against women, cynically says, *'Zeus made this greatest evil — 
women.'' 2 To most of the poets women are incidental — pleas- 
ures or nuisances as the case may be. But there are refer- 
ences to them in Archilochus, Anacreon, Mimnermus, Solon, 
Alcman, Theognis, and others, and from this fragmentary 
evidence must be constructed something of the life, material 
surroundings, occupations, and ideals of the women of this 
'age. Vase paintings aid by showing women at home, in 
religious festivals and ceremonies and in myths, often adding 
illuminating details to the knowledge acquired from literary 
sources. 

The greatest woman of the age — Sappho — has achieved 
the reputation also of being one of the greatest women of all 
time. Too little of her poetry is left to reconstruct with cer- 
tainty the details of her life, but there is enough to reveal 
the temper of her personality and genius. Other women 
of the period, Corinna, Myrtis, Praxilla, Telesilla, Erinna, live 
in memory and tradition, but not in their own work. Sappho 
is the only woman through whom we can know women, and 
the question how far a genius can be considered representative 
is difficult to determine. It remains, however, that she is one 
of the chief sources for knowledge of the women of the 
period. Aeolic Lesbos, the life of Sappho shows, permitted 
greater freedom to its women than did apparently most 
Greek lands. In the early sixth century it was an intellectual 
centre, and at least some women came from other places to 
sit at the feet of the leaders and learn wisdom of them.* 
Little, however, is known of the "wisdom" of the maidens of 
Sappho's circle, and it is uncertain to what extent the name of 
"school" may be applied to them.^ It is chiefly because of the 

2 Semonides, 7. 96. 

^ Sappho seems to have had a rival in Andromeda. Cf. Sappho, 
39. 

4 (ro<pia, — Ibid., 70. 
\ 



46 SOCIAL ASP.ECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

genius of their leader herself that her line, — -"some one will 
remember us hereafter," is true.^ The memory of their 
beauty and friendship and joy in living is dependent on a 
few stray verses that have survived the centuries. "I do not 
think that any maiden so wise (as thou) shall ever in all time 
to come see the light of the sun," sings Sappho of one of her 
otherwise forgotten followers.^ Their lasting friendships, 
however, still live in the lines, — "Atthis, thy friend and mine 
— Mnasidika, dwells at Sardis far away, but she often bends 
her thoughts hither about the life which once we lived to- 
gether, the while she thought thee like a glorious goddess and 
rejoiced most of all in thy song ..."''' To another 
friend and pupil, Sappho said, — *To her I answered, *Go 
away rejoicing, and remember me because thou knowest how 
I cared for thee. If not, I would fain remind thee of what 
thou forgettest, that is, how dear and beautiful were the 
things we enjoyed together'."^ 

The fame rather than the works of the other poetesses of 
this period has come down to us. The one tiny fragment 
ascribed to Telesilla is insufficient to give any idea of her 
or her work.^ Corinna of Tanagra in Boeotia also enjoyed 
a great reputation, and was later honored by a statue in her 
native city.^^ She is said to have gained a poetical victory 
over Pindar at Thebes, and then inconsistently she blamed 
Myrtis, another Boeotian poet, for attempting, since she was 
a woman, to vie with him.^^ About twenty lines of hers are 
still extant, divided among fourteen fragments. Of Praxilla, 

5 Sappho, 27. 
^Ibid., 70. 

'^ Sappho, in Edmonds, J. M., The New Fragments of Alcaeus, 
Sappho, and Corinna (Cambridge, 1909), p. 13. 
^ Ibid., pp. II, 12. 

^ Telesilla, l. "A8' "Aprenis, co /copai, | (pevyoiaa top ^k\<pt6v- 
i^Pausanias, IX. 22.3. 

^^Ibid., XI. 22.3; Aelian, Varia Historia (Dresden, I744), XIII. 
2$ ; Corinna, 12. 



THE STATUS OF WOMEN 47 

whose floruit comes a little later (450 B.C.), fewer than 
ten lines remain. Of the verse of Erinna about twenty-five 
lines have survived. ^^ All that is known of the early Pytha- 
gorean women, who belonged to this same period, is their 
fame for their philosophy and their virtues.^* 

Besides the women who won honor in Hterature, other 
unusual women of the period cannot be overlooked. Some 
women came to the fore even in the active life of administra- 
tion. Pheretima, the mother of Arcesilaus, is said to have 
ruled for a time at Cyrene, enjoying the privileges that be- 
longed by right to her son, ''managing the government, and 
taking her seat at the council-board."^* At the end of this 
period Artemesia reigned over Halicarnassus, Cos, Nisyrus, 
and Calydna, and became an ally of Xerxes in his expedition 
against Greece, ^^ Her father was a Halicarnassian and her 
mother a Cretan. The appearance of a woman in arms 
against them was considered an insult by the Athenians. ^^ 
Telesilla, distinguished as a poetess, was revered at Argos 
because she was said to have organized the women, old men, 
and slaves for defence against the Lacedaemonians.^^ These 
women were all of high rank, and probably all who in any way 
belonged to *'the intellectuals" belonged to the upper classes. 

Difficulty in the way of describing the status of women in 
the sixth century arises from the fact that the condition of 
women in different parts of the Hellenic world varied greatly. 
In Ionia eastern influence was strong, and the tendency toward 
segregation began early. Herodotus rightly attributed it in 
part to intermarriage between Greeks and Carians, but he does 
not realize that it is due merely to the retention of an oriental 

12 These fragments may be found in the Anthologta Lyrica. 
"^^Cf. Carroll, Mitchell, Greek Women (Philadelphia, 1907), p. 306 
et seq. 

14 Herodotus, IV. 165 ; Heracl. Pont., Polit. 5 (Cf. Mtiller, II. 212). 

15 Herodotus, VH, 99. 
^^Ibid. VIII. 93- 
I'^Pausanias, 11. 20.8-10. 



48 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

custom. ^^ The freedom of Spartan women, on the other hand, 
was famous, and the pecuHar Dorian treatment of women is 
recorded in Xenophon's "Polity of the Lacedaemonians," and 
in Plutarch's "Lycurgus."^^ The earlier period in Sparta, 
before law and discipHne put an end to luxury and extrava- 
gance, is reflected in the Parthenia of Alcman. At Athens 
the legislation of Solon affecting women shows that they 
enjoyed more liberty before his time than later, and that in 
the sixth century the tendency to restrict their actions grew 
stronger. 

As in all ages the physical charm of women held a high 
place in any estimate of them. Among the Greeks this was 
of course especially true. Semonides emphasizes it by his 
attack on the ugly woman — "from a monkey."^^ To him 
her ill-favored face, thick neck, and crooked limbs betoken 
an evil soul as well. Physical appearance signifies the whole 
woman. It can easily be imagined that all of the beloved 
women, and those who gained honor and fame were surely 
fair to look upon. Sappho speaks of Mnasidika as "shining 
among the Lydian women as sometimes doth the rosy-fingered 
moon after sunset, among the surrounding stars, when she 
holds her light over the salt sea and likewise over the flower- 
spangled fields." ^^ She loved to compare a girl to some 
beauty of nature, to the sweet apple reddening at the end 
of a branch, for example. ^^ Her own daughter, she said, had 
"a form resembling golden flowers." ^^ That women made the 
most of their beauty is known from mirrors and other toilet 
articles found as well as from such descriptions as that of 

18 Herodotus, I. 146. 

19 Spartan women were not allowed to engage in sedentary pur- 
suits, and they were given training in sports and exercise to make 
them strong mothers of a healthy race. 

20 Semonides, 7. 71-82. 

21 Sappho, Edmonds, op. cit., p. 13. 

22 Sappho, 91. 
^^Ihid.M' 



THE STATUS OF WOMEN 



49 



the maiden to whom Sappho said, "Thou at my side didst 
twine about thy hair many wreaths of violets and roses 
sweet, and about thy deHcate neck many woven garlands made 
of a hundred flowers, and didst anoint thy youthful skin with 
many a jar of costly and royal myrrh." ^^ 

But the intellectual charm of women even this early was 
dominant, for it is Sappho also who is reputed to have said, 
"I would not exchange my mind for your beauty." ^^ Whether 
or not she really said this, it is true that now for the first 
time women won honor for their intellectual attainments. 
The statue erected in honor of Corinna in her native city for 
her poetical victory over Pindar has already been mentioned. 

The moral status of women at this period is apt to be judged 
by reference to Sappho. The character of Sappho, however, 
long interpreted in the worse possible light, was vindicated 
about a century ago.^^ How far this vindication is to be 
extended to other women of her age is a question. Immorality 
was doubtless present, as in all ages, but there is no reason 
to think that it was out of proportion to the civilization of 
the period. The women of whom the poets sing are often 
women of beauty of character and influence, as well as of 
beauty of body, fitted in every way to be compared to the 
Olympian goddesses. Neither Greek goddesses nor Greek 
women can be judged by a modern code of morals. More- 
over the assumption must be guarded against that immorality 
was a necessary correlative of close association between 
women. 

The chief functions in the life of a Greek woman were 
those of wifehood and motherhood. Accordingly the central 
point in her life was marriage. It was, however, a matter 
over which she had little or no personal control, as all arrange- 
ments for it were made by her father or guardian. He car- 

24 Sappho, Edmonds, op. cit., p. ii. 

25 Sappho, 12. 

26Welcker, F. G., Sappho von einem herrschenden Vorurtheil he- 
freyt (Gottingen, i8i6). 



50 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

ried on negotiations either with the prospective son-in-law 
or with his father. A dowry fitting the station and wealth of 
the families concerned was taken by the girl to her new home. 
In order to discourage extravagance, Solon limited dowries 
and allowed a bride to take to her new home only three dresses 
and a few articles of furniture.^''' The age for marriage was 
early. Sparta alone seems to have had the reputation for 
prohibiting the marriage of immature girls. ^^ There are 
few instances in the poetry of the period of love between 
men and women. There are, however, a few examples which 
show that there was some freedom of intercourse between 
them. 2^ Conditions varied throughout the period and in 
different places, the tendency being toward less freedom, 
especially among the lonians. On the whole, marriage was 
entered upon without regard to love. It was considered an 
important civic duty of men. 

Alliances were based on class and economic distinctions. 
The laments of Theognis over mixed marriages because of 
economic necessity have already been noted. Marriages, how- 
ever, among the ruling classes were often arranged for 
political purposes. Thus Peisistratus married the daughter of 
Megacles.^^ Another earlier notable instance is that of the 
Bacchiadae of Corinth, who intermarried in order to keep 
the power in their family. They were finally overthrown by 
Cypselus, whose mother Labda belonged to that family but 
could find no husband in it because she was lame.^^ Mar- 
riage between members of different states were also common. 
Periander, the son of Cypselus, married Melissa, daughter of 
Proclus, tyrant of Epidauros.^^ Cylon married the daughter 
of Theagenes, tyrant of Megara.^^ Such marriages were 

27 Plutarch, Solon, 20. 

^^ Id., Lycurgiis, 14. 

2 9Anacreon, 9; Sappho, 88. 

30 Herodotus, I. 60, 61. 

3i/&trf., V. 92. 

32Paitsanias, II. 28.8. 

33Thucydides, I. 126; Pausanias, I. 28.1. 



THE STATUS OF WOMEN 



51 



legal at Athens throughout this period.^* The story of the 
gathering of suitors from all parts of Greece at the court 
of Cleisthenes of Sicyon is famous. ^^ When after testing 
all in the gymnasia and at the banquet table, the father 
finally chose an Athenian, he betrothed his daughter to be the 
wife of Megacles "according to the laws of the Athenians," 
showing that the marriage came under the laws of the state 
of the bridegroom. ^^ A member of Sappho's circle apparently 
married a noble of Sardis.^^ Such alliances point to friendly 
relations and considerable intercourse between Greeks and 
Lydians in the early sixth century. 

The formal betrothal having taken place and arrangements 
about the dowry made, without necessarily consulting the girl, 
the wedding itself was celebrated. The form in this period 
probably varied little from either earlier or later times, for 
such customs always retain a traditional nature. The cere- 
monial washing of the bride and groom, the feast at the house 
of the bride's father, in which women participated, the pro- 
cession to the new home with an escort of singing friends, 
the serenade there, and the reception of the guests the next 
day, were permanent features. Sparta with her usual con- 
servatism clung to the old form of marriage by capture long 
after its real significance was gone.^® In other states the 
wedding was accompanied by feasting and song. The bride 
took formal leave of her maidenhood by certain ritual acts, 
such as the dedication of her toys or locks of hair to a god or 
hero.^^ Wedding feasts were among the few occasions when 

3'* Aristotle is applying a later law when he calls the marriage 
of Peisistratus to an Argive woman illegal. Aristotle, Ath. Const., 
ly. The legality is shown by the occurrence of such marriages, and 
the fact that children born of them (e.g., Themistocles) were con- 
sidered citizens. 

35 Herodotus, VI. 126-130. 

^^Ihid., 130. 

37 Sappho, Edmonds, op. cit., p. 13. 

38 Herodotus, VI. 65; Plutarch, Lycurgus, 15. 

39 Herodotus, VI. 138; IV. 33, 34; Pausanias, I. 43.4; II. 32.1; 
II. 33-I. 



52 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

women appeared in public. Among the poems of the period 
are many fragments of wedding songs. Sappho is said to 
have especially devoted herself to this branch of composi- 
tion. In some of her fragments may be caught glimpses 
of wedding customs. The father ''gives away" the bride.'*^ 
Libations are poured with good wishes, as we would drink 
a toast. What Sappho says of the wedding feasts of gods 
was doubtless true of the wedding feasts of men : "And there 
the bowl of ambrosia first was mixed, and then Hermes took 
the leathern flask to pour out for the gods ; they then all held 
their oblong cups and made libation, and wished the bride- 
groom good things in full measure."*^ Apparently the bride 
and her happiness were of minor consideration. In Sappho, 
the moods of a wedding are reflected also. The bride muses: 
"Maidenhood, maidenhood, whither dost thou go when thou 
leavest me? Never again shall I come to thee, never again"*^ 
And in his pride the groom is "much taller than a tall man."*' 
There is little reference to married life in the poetry of the 
age. Little or no idea therefore can be gained of the ordinary 
relations of husband and wife. Men were frankly interested 
most in things outside of their homes. If they could maintain 
peace and comfort in the hours they spent there, it was all 
that could be expected or desired. Such certainly was the 
opinion of Semonides, who says of wives, "Even if they are 
some benefit, most of all they are an evil for their husbands."** 
His word for husband, exovn , effectively sums up his idea 
of the relationship. His ideal woman is the industrious one, 
like the bee, who is a good mother, an attentive wife, and 
interested only in her home.^^ Theognis speaks of the inex- 
pediency of a marriage between a young woman and an old 
man, but on the whole compatibility of temperament was little 

40 Sappho, 94. 

41 Ibid., 48, 49- 
^2 Ibid., 103. 
^^Ibid., 89. 

4 4 Semonides, 7. 97, 98. — fiv n kclI 8oKeo:(nv d}<pe\€tv ^ 
txovTi TOi fiaXLara ylyverai kukov. 

4^ Ibid., 7. 83-93. 



THE STATUS OF WOMEN 53 

sought after in arranging marriages. ^^ It must be remem- 
bered, however, that to the Greek marriage was a legal arrange- 
ment for the purpose of maintaining the family and providing 
children to carry on its name and wealth, and to fulfill its 
obligations to the state and to the gods. Common interests 
and cares must have usually led husband and wife to a mutual 
respect and moderate affection for one another. Happiness 
or unhappiness might come; it was a matter of chance. The 
seventh and sixth century poets for the most part represent 
the pessimistic point of view in regard to woman's character. 
'There are four kinds of women," — declared Phocylides, "one 
is a dog, one a bee, one a horrid pig, and one a long-maned 
horse. This last is active, swift, roaming, and fair of form. 
The horrid pig is neither evil nor good. The dog is trouble- 
some and wild. The bee is homekeeping and good and knows 
how to work. Pray, my friend, that a happy marriage may 
be thy lot."^*^ There was perhaps one chance in four for 
happiness. Hipponax, however, was still more cynical. **Two 
days of sweetness man gets from a woman : when he marries 
her and when he buries her."*^ Yet, when all is said, there 
must have been many happy marriages and contented homes 
which were too commonplace to find their way into poetry. 

There is little evidence, literary or archaeological, to aid 
in reconstructing the home where the Greek family of the 
seventh or sixth century lived. In the most recent book on 
the Greek house, this period is entirely ignored.*^ It may 
be assumed, however, that like later houses it was built 
around a central court, which was the centre of family life. 
The women had separate apartments, but not a separate 
court for their exclusive use.^^ Much of their everyday life 
was passed in the court (avX^). As the men were absent 

•*<^Theognis, 457-460. 
4 7 Phocylides, i. 
4 8 Hipponax, 11. 

49 Rider, Bertha, The Greek House (Cambridge, 1916). 
^^ Ihid., pp. 22,2>-22>7\ Gardner, E., "The Greek House," in Journal 
of Hellenic Studies, XXI (1901), p. 299. 



54 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

a large part of the time, they often had it to themselves. It 
is not necessary to suppose that they always withdrew ufKDn 
the entrance of a man not of the family. It is known that 
in the seventh century at any rate, a woman might meet her 
husband's guests. ^^ Such customs probably varied with the 
place and the class of society. The number of rooms de- 
pended upon the wealth of the family, and country houses 
could be more spacious than those in the city, where build- 
ings were of necessity crowded together and often obliged 
to use party walls. No private houses were elaborate, and 
in a still later day the homes of such great men as Aristides 
and Miltiades were remarked upon for their simplicity and 
modesty. ^^ 

The furniture of the Greek home was comparatively simple. 
Couches, tables, chairs and chests, together with household 
utensils, fulfilled all the needs of the family. They might 
be either simple or elaborately decorated. The couches, used 
both for beds at night and for reclining at meals, are to be 
seen on many vase paintings. ^^ They consisted of a simplt 
frame-work held together by leather thongs. Over this were 
spread draperies and cushions, which might be of simple 
homemade material or of luxurious fabrics imported from the 
Orient. The poorer folk slept on rushes or straw. The tables 
used were low and small, and in the vase paintings are seen 
close to the couches spread with dishes for a feast. Chairs \vere 
of different styles, with and without backs. Chests in which 
family possessions were kept might be simple wooden ones 
or beautifully decorated like the "Chest of Cypselus" at 
Olympia, described by Pausanias.^^ Looms for weaving were 
in practically every household for the use of the mistress and 
such slave women as she had. In this period rugs and other 
importations of the East were becoming more usual. ^^ 

51 Semonides, 7.29. 

52 Demosthenes, 01 III. 25. 

5 3Furt. and Reich. II, pi. yz- 

5 4Pausanias, V. 17.5-19. 10. 

5 5Francotte, op. cit., vol. i, p. 138. 



THE STATUS OF WOMEN 



55 



Household utensils were of metal or of clay. There were 
copper cauldrons for cooking over the fire. Pottery vessels 
of all shapes and sizes were used for storing and serving 
food. They might be of undecorated ware for the common- 
est use, but the great majority of vessels had some artistic 
decoration. Vase paintings thus transmit our most direct 
view of Greek life. Silent and unconscious, they show 
clearly what a Greek, or an Italian who had come under 
Greek influence, liked to have around him in his every-day 
life, in what myths and epic tales he was most interested, 
what games and pleasures he enjoyed. In addition to jars, 
bowls, pitchers, plates, and cups for culinary use, there were 
also toilet articles of clay, from large basins for bathing to 
tiny boxes for powders and unguents. ^^ Even the poorest 
homes must have had a fair supply of pottery. 

In general, while the man after marriage as before found 
his interests and amusements away from home, the woman 
became wrapped up in the daily duties and occupations of 
her household. The care of home and children, the prepara- 
tion of clothing and food, formed the chief occupations of 
the Greek women. The "intellectuals" doubtless spent little 
of their time in this way, but they were exceptional and few. 
To labor with the grist-mill, to clean the house, to make com- 
fortable her husband's friends, these duties, thinks Semonides, 
should occupy a woman's time.^'^ Among the upper classes 
such menial tasks were performed by slaves. It must be 
remembered, however, that in this period slaves had not yet 
become numerous. Consequently, in the middle class, and 
sometimes in the case of the rich, much of the work of the 
home was still done by the women of the family. They 
also did the spinning and sewing necessary for the household. 
Women's industrial activities were limited almost entirely to 
the home. Yet women doubtless sometimes aided in their 
husbands' industries, and there were also slave women who 

5 6 Fowler and Wheeler, op. cit., pp. 413-419. 
^"^ Semonides, 7. 



56 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

were rented out or employed by their owners in "factories," 
a state of affairs which did not come to exist to any extent 
until the end of the period. ^^ A woman at work in a potter's 
establishment is seen on a vase.^^ The social activities of a 
woman were also largely bounded by her home. That in this 
period she still met her husband's guests is shown in the 
passage from Semonides referred to above. From the same 
poet it is learned that women were wont to meet to gossip 
over neighborhood affairs. ^^ They doubtless had more free- 
dom to go upon the street and to make calls than in the 
classical period. The wedding feast was probably the only 
mixed gathering in which a woman of good repute had any 
share. 

Much of a woman's time and interest was inevitably de- 
voted to her children. The father's interest in his younger 
children, however, was small, at least it was not of the kind 
that found its way into literary expression. ^^ There is, of 
course, Simonides's exquisite fragment about Danae, as an 
illustration of what a man could write about a woman and a 
child. ^^ But examples of this kind are rare. It is in Sappho, 
as one might expect, that allusions to children are natural 
and tender. Reference has already been made to her own 
daughter, for whom she would not take all Lydia in exchange. 
Tenderly and beautifully she speaks of her, — "Kleis the be- 
loved, with a form like a golden flower." ^^ In figures she uses 
children simply and directly. "I follow with flying feet, as a 

58 Pettier, Edmond, Downs et les Peintres de Vases Grecs (Paris, 
1905), p. 20. 

59 Walters, op. cit., vol. i, p. 224, fig. ^2 (later). 

60 Semonides, 7. 90-91. 

61 Such inscriptions as that given in Corpus Inscriptioniim Atti- 
carum, vol. i, Suppl. 491 ^0, the date of which is uncertain, from a 
tombstone erected to the memory of a daughter, bear touching wit- 
ness to the affection of father and mother for their child. 

62 Simonides of Ceos, 22. 

63 Sappho, 84. 



THE STATUS OF WOMEN 



57 



child its mother";^"* and "Hesperus, who bringeth all things 
back which the bright dawn scatters, thou br ingest the lamb 
and the goat, thou bringest the child to its mother." ^^ The 
story that the men who were sent to kill the infant Cypselus 
could not carry out their task because the child, when put 
in turn in the arms of each, smiled up in their faces, illus- 
trates tenderer feeling toward children than is often found in 
Greek literature. ^^ The lullaby of Danae by Simonides 
shows the sentiment of mother love to be much the same in 
any age. 

While intimate family life did not find its way into Greek 
literature to an appreciable extent, it may be supposed that 
family ties were strong. That ties of blood were usually held 
more binding than those of marriage is evidenced by the 
conduct and speech of Antigone, and by a similar story told 
by Herodotus, which, while placed in Persian setting, reflects 
the Greek attitude.^' Theognis laments over undutiful chil- 
dren. — "the worst evil of all among men, more grievous than 
death and disease it is, if, when you have brought up children 
and provided all suitable things, when you have stored up 
wealth and suffered much trouble, they hate their father and 
pray for his death and despise him as if he were a beggar." ^^ 
But such conduct was not condoned, — "For those who dis- 
honor their parents when growing old, there is no place of 
esteem.'*' ^^ Athenian law required children to support their 
father, though illegitimate children are said to have been 
exempted from this rule by Solon. "^^ On the other hand, 
Solonian law made it necessary for a father to have his sons 
taught a profitable trade. Neglect of this excused his chil- 

6* Sappho. 36. 

^^ Ibid., 93. 

®^ Herodotus. V. 92. 

67 Herodotus, HI. 119. 

68 Theognis, 273-278. 
^^Ihid., 821-822. 

"<> Plutarch, Solon, 22. 



58 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

dren from the obligation of caring for him.'^^ Until the time 
of Solon family inheritance of money and lands was the 
only kind recognized by law, and wills were impossible. Solon, 
however, permitted a childless man to bequeath his property 
as he would. "^^ 

Women had their pleasures and amusements as well as 
their duties. For everyday recreation they might indulge in 
gossip with their neighbors, or spend time at an elaborate 
toilet. "^^ As has been observed, they joined in wedding fes- 
tivities. As they grew old they probably derived equal pleas- 
ure from funerals. Many attempts were made to curb them 
in the excessive display of the grief which they affected."'* 
Women took part in local religious festivals, sometimes with 
men and sometimes separately. They also attended some of 
the greater religious gatherings. In an earlier age, the lonians 
with their wives and children had assembled at Delos when 
the festival was celebrated there with games and choruses.'''^ 
Women also viewed the contests of the Panathenaia.'^^ While 
from Olympia, however, married women were excluded during 
the period of the great games,''''' apparently this restriction did 
not apply to maidens.''* The priestess of Demeter Chamyne 
was an unofficial witness of the Olympic Games, and probably 
priestesses were present on many occasions which were for- 
bidden to ordinary women. ''^ 

■^1 Plutarch, Solon, 22, 

■^2 Bequests obtained by violence or trickery or the "solicitations of 
a wife" were illegal. Plutarch, Solon, 21. 

"'^ Archdologische Zeitiing, vol. 40, 1882, plate 7. 

■^4 Laws of Solon regulated funerals and mourning at Athens. Cf. 
Plutarch, Solon, 21. There were also regulations at Sparta. Cf. Id., 
Lycurgus, 26. 

75 "Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo," 146-164, in Baumeister, A., 
Hynini Homerici (Leipsic, 1910). 

7 6 Pindar, Pyth. IX. 97 seq. 

77Pausanias, V. 6.7. 

'^^Ibid., V. 13. 10; VI. 20.9. 

'^^Ibid. 



THE STATUS OF WOMEN 



59 



In Sparta it was provided that "... the girls, no less 
than boys, should go naked in processions, and dance and sing 
in festivals in the presence of the young men."^^ Dorian cus- 
tom approved this for the sake of the physical development of 
women, and made no charge of immodesty against it. Ionic 
opinion, early influenced by the oriental tendency to seclude 
women, did not allow such freedom of action to its women. 
Their position grew more and more restricted, but the sixth 
century was far from seeing the completion of this develop- 
ment. Athletic contests were sometimes held in connection 
with women's festivals at places other than Sparta. For 
instance, at the Heraea held at Olympia, there were games 
consisting of races between virgins, in three groups accord- 
ing to age. Here they wore their hair down and a costume, 
a loose tunic, corresponding to that in the familiar statue of 
the Spartan runner. ^^ The winners received crowns of olive 
and shares of the sacrificed cow. They might dedicate statues 
of themselves with their names. Such an offering is the 
statue of the Spartan runner just mentioned, although this 
belongs to a later period. 

There is little source material to aid in the reconstruction 
of women's dress in the sixth century. Herodotus tells that 
Athenian women were forbidden to use pins to fasten their 
clothes as a result of their having stabbed to death a messen- 
ger who brought unwelcome news.^^ This story is referred 
to 568 B.C., but it probably belongs to an earlier period or is 
entirely mythical. ^^ Up to the opening of the sixth century 
a woolen costume made in the Doric style was probably worn. 
This is seen on the Fates of the Francois vase.^^ Then the 
Ionic chiton of linen, elaborately draped, was introduced. ^^ 

8 Plutarch, Lycurgus, 14. Cf. Xenophon, Pol. of Lac. i. 

81 Pausanias, V. 16. 2-2,. 

82 Herodotus, V. 82-88. 

83 Abrahams, Ethel, Greek Dress (London, 1908), p. 42. 
84Furt. and Reich. II. pi. i, 2. 

85 Abrahams, op. cit., p. 41 et seq. 



6o SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

The sumptuary laws of Solon were doubtless a protest against 
growing luxury from Ionia. An earlier luxurious costume is 
mentioned by Thucydides.^^ The dress seen on the "Maidens 
of the Acropolis" is thought to represent the style of the latter 
part of the sixth century. ^""^ Vase paintings also illustrate the 
development of dress. Imported clothes were fashionable 
then, as to-day. Scythian shoes are spoken of, but the finest 
footwear came from Lydia.^^ Three dresses were sufficient 
for a trousseau, according to the laws of Solon. ^^ That 
number was also the most that a woman was allowed to carry 
with her when travelling. ^^ 

No contemporary sources of this period show in what 
relationship women stood to the state and the law. The poetic 
nature of the literary sources precludes the recording even of 
such facts as might have existed. Moreover, in an age when 
the state first began to formulate its duties the less important 
matters — such as women — were ignored. Women were under 
the jurisdiction of their fathers or husbands, and the state 
did not interfere. As government became more complex, it 
extended its authority. In the legislation of Solon, as re- 
corded by later writers, are found the first regulations for 
Athenian women. Sparta, under the constitution attributed 
to Lycurgus, had subordinated every phase of society to the 
common weal. The Hfe of the Spartans, men and women 
aHke, was arranged in every detail by law.^^ 

8 6 Thucydides, I. 6. 

8 7 "A careful study of the statues themselves and a considera- 
tion of all the evidence bearing on the question lead to the conclu- 
sion that the complete costume consists of two garments, a long 
under-dress, which may be regarded as the usual in-door costume 
cf the Athenian ladies of the sixth century and a mantle worn over 
it for out-of-doors ; occasionally a scarf or shawl is worn as well 
over the mantle, perhaps for additional warmth, perhaps only for 
ornament." — Abrahams, op. cit., p. 87. 

ssAlcaeus, 78; Sappho, 17. 

89 Plutarch, Solon, 20. 

^^Ibtd., 21. 

^^Xenophon, Pol. of Lac, passim. 



^ 



THE STATUS OF WOMEN 6l 

The laws of Solon relating to women include some of the 
earliest legal restrictions placed upon women, and set a prece- 
dent in Athens for further regulations restraining their free- 
dom. The conditions under which a woman might travel, for 
instance, were specified, — she must not carry with her more 
than three dresses nor more than a specified amount of food 
or drink, her "trunk" must not exceed a fixed size, nor was " 
she to travel at night, except in a wagon with a light in front.** 
In order to suppress extravagance Solon required that dowries 
be diminished. ^^ For the same reason he regulated both 
funerals and festivals. ^^ The importance to the state of 
women as mothers is seen in his provisions to ensure an 
heiress's having children to inherit her wealth. ^^ The unfor- 
tunate economic situation is seen, as well as some hint given 
of the regard in which women were held, by his prohibition 
to men to sell their sisters and daughters, except in cases of 
unchastity.^^ These laws of Solon are illustrative of the 
general position of women before the law throughout the 
Greek world. 

Since Hellenic religion was one of goddesses as well as of 
gods, it is natural that women had a share in its rites and \ 
ceremonies. That earlier time when "once Cretan women 
danced with tender feet to music round a lovely altar," was 
not forgotten.^''' Its influence can be seen in those choruses 
of Spartan maidens for whom Alcman wrote his Parthenia. 
The Spartan of iron discipline and continual preparedness 
seems very far away from, the radiant Agido and golden- 
haired Agesichora, but it seems certain that in a "golden age", 
before either necessity or lust for power had changed the 
policy and whole nature of the Spartans, these bands of girls 

92 Plutarch, Solon, 21. 

^^Ibid., 20. 

^'^Ibid., 21. This applied to men as well as to women. 

9 5 Ibid., 20. 

^^Ibid., 23. 

9"^ Sappho, 52, 



62 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

played a prominent part in religious ceremonies. ^^ Choruses 
of women were common in other parts of Greece, at Delos, 
for example. ^^ Maenads, the frenzied worshippers of Dio- 
nysus, played an important part in Greek religion, and their 
revels were a favorite theme of vase painters. ^^^ 

When all is said, of the vast majority of women of the 
sixth century we know nothing. Of them it is true as of her 
of whom Sappho said, "Thou shalt lie dead and never shall 
there be remembrance of thee in the future, for thou dost not 
share in the roses of Pieria."^^^ 

9 8 Alcman, 5. 

99 Herodotus, IV. 35- 

100 Alcman, 18; Gerhard, E., Auserlesene Griechische Vasen-hilder 
(Berlin, 1840-1858), vol. i, pi. 31. 

101 Sappho, 69. 



/ 



CHAPTER IV 

Men — Civic and Social Activities 

By the opening of the sixth century the days of old tribal 
warfare were entirely past and men had settled down to a 
life that was, generally speaking, civil rather than military. 
The peaceful occupations of industry and trade were begin- 
ning to flourish. While there were periods of civil strife in 
almost every Greek city, there were also periods of peace, 
usually under the tyrants, when recreation as well as business 
could be calmly pursued. Men found time for idHng in the 
agora, exercising at the gymnasium, and making merry at 
festivals and feasts. In Thessaly, where old feudal aristocracy 
prevailed, hunting and riding were favorite sports.^ There 
feasting retained the boisterous features of old Homeric days. 
The ideal of the noble, which Herodotus puts into the mouth 
of a Lydian prince, Abys, son of Croesus, was long retained : — 
"Formerly, my father, it was deemed the noblest and most 
suitable thing for me to frequent the wars and hunting par- 
ties, and win myself glory in them."^ In Sparta the crystal- 
lization of the militaristic spirit caused the retention of the 
hardier arts of war and hunting. There the refinements of 
advancing civilization were forbidden, and even the earlier 
Spartan characteristics, which, as Alcman bears witness, did 
not converge on the militaristic ideal, were allowed to die out. 
But throughout most of the Greek world pleasure as well 
as business took on a more peaceful nature. 

The Greek sought his recreation in sports and entertain- 
ments in which women had little part. While women were 
far from being secluded in this period, the general rule was 

1 Aristotle, Politics, II. 9.2; Herodotus, VII. 196; Plato, Meno, 
70 A. 

2 Herodotus, I. 27- 

63 



64 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

followed that men associate with men and women with 
women. Practically, all public activities of women were of a 
religious nature. In the everyday life of men women had little 
part. Duty and custom bound them to a life at home. The 
southern climate led men to a care-free, out-of-door existence. 
The artisans followed their trades when possible in the open 
air. Men of the upper classes had plentiful leisure, and 
they rarely chose to spend it at home. In the morning they 
gathered in the market-place or the assembly, and mingled 
with their little business much discussion. After their mid- 
day meal, they often enjoyed a siesta such as is common in 
southern countries, or else played at dice or other quiet 
games. ^ Later they went to the palaestra to practice or to 
watch the athletes. A quiet dinner at home ended the day, 
if there was no great banquet on hand. 

The life of the Spartan, regulated by the state, did not 
follow this mode. A military career was the only fitting occu- 
pation for a Spartan. Anything that would hinder the devel- 
opment of the primary virtues of simplicity, obedience, brav- 
ery, and loyalty was forbidden. Only strengthening recrea- 
tions were allowed. A Spartan under thirty years of age was 
forbidden to frequent the market-place. Men dined regularly 
at their own messes, and extravagant entertainment of guests 
was unknown.^ Their food was simple, — bread, cheese, figs, 
and of course the famous "black broth." ^ Fish and other 
luxuries were but occasional. Wine was drunk only in moder- 
ation. 

But the greater part of the Greek world was learning more 
luxurious habits. From Lydia, through Ionia, came the use 
of rich clothing and food. Xenophanes, commenting on the 
customs of the times, says : "Learning useless luxuries from 
the Lydians, they go to the market-place with robes all purple- 
dyed, — ^thousands of them all together, boastful, proud of their 

3 Herodotus, I. 63. 

4 Plutarch, Lycurgus, 10; Xenophon, Pol. of Lac, 5. 

5 Plutarch, Lycurgus, 11. 



MEN— CIVIC AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES 65 

beautifully arranged hair, shedding an odor of curiously- 
wrought perfume."^ Herodotus says that the Lydians claimed 
the invention of many games played by the Greeks, such as 
dice, knuckle-bones, and ball."^ Such games, however, were 
of ancient origin and common to many peoples.^ 

The origin of the athletic contests which held a central 
position in Greek life is ascribed to the race of northern 
invaders rather than to the Minoans.^ The games seem to 
have developed from simple celebrations at funerals to peri- 
odical rites connected with hero-cults, and to have been finally 
taken over by the Olympian deities. ^^ Uninfluenced by for- 
eign customs, these contests maintained the ideals of bodily 
strength and beauty which early took shape in the Greek 
mind. By the sixth century they were well established. In 
this formative period, when oriental thought and customs 
were contributing largely to Greek life, they were potent 
forces in determining what Hellenism was to be. 

The importance of the games with their athletic contests 
in Greek life can hardly be overestimated. The Greek Na- 
tional Games and the local festivals of the same order were 
primary interests in the life of all Greek freemen. As re- 
ligious institutions they commanded devoted observance from 
all. As opportunities for display of strength and skill, for 
friendly competition and recreation, they were attended by 
great popularity. In them duty and pleasure were combined. 
At the Great Games Hellenes from all parts of the Greek 
world came together and in meeting realized their unity of 
race and language. They traded their own products for those 
of other lands and made religious festivals the first commer- 

6 Xenophanes, 3. 

''' Herodotus, I. 94. 

^Od. VIII. 372, ball; Od. I. 107, draughts. Homer, The Odyssey, 
ed. by A. Piatt (Cambridge, 1892). 

9 Gardiner, E. Norman, Greek Athletic Sports and Festivals (Lon- 
don, 1910), p. 8 et seq. 
^^Ibid., p. 27. 



66 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

cial centres. More important, they exchanged ideas, and with 
increased knowledge acquired broader sympathies. The influ- 
ence of the Great Games in creating a Hellenic ideal and in 
aiding the growth of intellectual and spiritual unity was thus 
enormous. 

Among the games those at Olympia in honor of Zeus held 
unchallenged first place. Their beginnings are lost in the 
mists of antiquity. Heracles is said to have first established 
them as a local festival. ^^ The original fame of Olympia 
was due to an oracle there, but the great festival soon became 
the centre of attraction. ^^ Once in four years, while a sacred 
peace reigned, Greeks thronged from east and west to take 
part in or watch the contests. Barbarians were not permitted 
to participate in them.^^ Later, time was reckoned by Olym- 
piads, with 776, the supposed year of the institution of the 
foot-race, as the starting-point. By the opening of the sixth 
century many other contests had been added, and competi- 
tions were held in the double foot-race, the pentathlon, box- 
ing, racing with four horse chariots, the pankration for men, 
horse-racing, running and wrestling, and boxing for boys.^* 
Later new features were introduced, such as the race in armor 
in 520 B.C.^^ The games were open to all irrespective of rank 
or riches. To maintain horses for the chariot races, however, 
required wealth, and only members of the great families were 
able to participate in this feature. Arcesilaus of Gyrene,^® 
Demaratus, a Spartan king,^'' the Alcmaeonidae,^^ were not- 
able participants, while the Sicilian tyrants won great fame 
in these contests. ^^ 

iiPausanias, V. 7.7. 
i2Strabo, VIII. 3.30. 
13 Herodotus, V. 22. 
i^Pansanias, V. 8. 6-10. 
^^Ibid., VI. 10.4. 

16 Pindar, Pyth. 4. 

17 Herodotus, VI. 70. 
18/ttc/., VI. 125. 

i» Pindar, 01. 2; Id., Pyth. i, 2. 



MEN— CIVIC AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES 67 

Victory in an Olympic contest brought honor both to the 
individual and to his city. The simple olive wreath with 
which the successful competitor was crowned was a symbol 
of the greatest glbry.^^ An Olympic victory was an aid to a 
man in political or private life.^^ The victor was allowed to 
erect a statue of himself in the precinct at Olympia. On his 
return to his native city, he was greeted with songs of praise, 
processions, and banquets. "If a man gains a victory by swift- 
ness of foot or in the pentathlon in the precinct of Zeus at 
Olympia by the streams of Pisa, or in wrestling or boxing, 
or in the dread contest which they call the pankration," says 
Xenophanes, "he is to his fellow-citizens most glorious to 
look upon, and he gains the prominent front seat at the games, 
and feasting at the public expense, and a gift which may be 
an heirloom." 22 An Athenian Olympic victor in the time of 
Solon was rewarded by his city with a gift of five hundred 
drachmas. 2^ Many of the statues of this early period were of 
fig or cypress wood and have perished. ^^ More beautiful and 
more lasting memorials are the odes of Pindar, ^^ which cele- 
brate such victories. In more fragmentary form are the 
encomia of BacchyHdes and of Simonides of Ceos,^^ but they 
too heightened men's glory by their praise. ^^ 

The Pythian games at Delphi were the outgrowth of an 
ancient hymn contest in honor of the god. After the Sacred 
War with Crisa, additional contests were established and like- 
wise prizes were offered to athletes. ^^ The Pythiads, like 
the Olympiads, four year periods, are counted from 586 
B.C. A few years later (578 B.C.), prizes were discontinued, 

2 0Pausanias, V. 7.7; Herodotus, VIII. 26. 
21c/ Beloch, op. cit., vol. i, p. 367. 

22 Xenophanes, 2, 1-9. 

23 Plutarch, Solon, 23. 
24Pausanias, VI. 18.7. 

25 Pindar, Olympian Odes. 

26 Cf. Anthologia Lyrica, pp. 277-85, and pp. 23Z-^7- 

27 Herodotus, V. 102. 
28Strabo, IX. 3.10. 



68 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

and a crown of laurel substituted as reward for victory. ^^ 
In the same year chariot racing was introduced/^ and in 554 
B.C. a competition in lyre playing was added. ^^ As was 
appropriate in games in honor of Apollo, musical contests 
held a place of high honor. Pindar's twelfth Pythian is in 
honor of Midas of Agrigentum, who twice won the prize for 
flute playing in the Pythian games (and once in the Panathe- 
naea). Delphi's primary fame was due to her oracle, and its 
power overshadowed other activities of that holy place, but 
the Pythian games had no small share in making her the 
centre of the Greek world. 

The Nemean Games, held every two years, were originally 
a hero festival for Archemorus, earlier known as Opheltes, 
but from about 576 B.C., they were held in honor of Zeus.^^ 
The victors in the gymnastic, equestrian, and musical con- 
tests received wreaths of celery. ^^ The Isthmian Games, held 
at the same interval as the Nemean, likewise had their incep- 
tion in a hero festival to Melicertes (Palaemon), but later 
they became sacred to Poseidon.^* They were conducted by 
the Corinthians, though tradition said that the Athenian hero 
Theseus had played a large part in their organization. Certain 
it is that the Athenians always participated prominently in 
them. Solon decreed that an Athenian victor in the Isthmian 
games should be given a reward of a hundred drachmas from 
the pubHc treasury. ^^ The games took the form which they 
maintained throughout the historical period early in the sixth 
century. The crown of victory was made of pine, and for a 
time of celery. ^^ 

^^Marm. Par. 38 (Miiller, vol. i, p. 548); Pausanias, X. 7.5, 8. 

sopausanias, X. 7.6. 

^^Ibid., X. 7.7. 

^^Cf. Strabo, VIII. 6.19; Pausanias, II. 15.3. 

33 Pausanias, VIII. 48.2. 

^^Ibid., I. 44.8; II. 1.3. Also Plutarch, Theseus, 25. 

35 Plutarch, Solon, 23. 

3 6 Pausanias, VIII. 48.2, 



MEN— CIVIC AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES 69 

The Great Games attained their importance by the support 
of minor festivals of the same kind. The local festivals, 
which were part of the everyday life of the people, prepared 
them in body and in spirit for the greater contests. In name- 
less meetings of the countryside, where the victors were gar- 
landed with myrtle or with rose,^"'^ the youths first learned 
the joy of rivalry. After such training they dared to enter 
the more formal contests, such as the festival in honor of the 
Triopian Apollo, the victors in which received brass tripods 
as prizes, ^^ or the Lycaean Games, celebrated on Mt. Ly- 
caeus.^^ Often the prize was but a crown of palm and palm 
branches placed in the victor's right hand, and the contest- 
ants learned to strive for glory rather than for recompense."*^ 
When the reward was of intrinsic value, it was sometimes 
obligatory that it be dedicated to the god, and not carried 
away from the sacred precinct. Such was the requirement 
in the case of the tripods just mentioned. ^^ A woolen cloak 
was the reward at Pellene during this period. ^^ At Marathon 
silver vessels were awarded to the victor;*^ and the same 
prize was given at Sicyon,** and at other places. From the 
Panathenaea at Athens the victorious contestants bore away 
especially decorated jars of olive oil.*^ Many of these jars, 
bearing the inscription ''from the games at Athens", still 

3"^ Simonides, 26. 

38 Herodotus, I. 144. 

39 Pindar, 01. IX. 96; 01. XIII. 107; Nem. X. 48. Also Pausanias, 
VIII. 38.5. 

4 Pausanias, VIII. 48.2. 

41 Herodotus, I. 144. 

42 Pindar, 01. IX. 97 et seq.; Nem. X. 44. 
^^Ihid., 01. IX. 89. 

^^Ibid., Nem. X. 43. 

'^^ Ibid., Nem. X. 33-36. These jars, of black-figured technique, 
have usually a figure of Athena between two Doric columns on one 
side, and a picture of the athletic contest on the other. They bear 
the inscription "from the games at Athens." The earliest of them 
belong to the sixth century. 



70 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

remain.*^ Games were held in honor of the gods, great and 
small, and also of the heroes.*^ While many of the festivals 
had been handed down from antiquity, ^^ new ones were 
established in the period under discussion.*^ 

The contestants in the Great Games went through a special 
training before competing and often devoted much of their 
time to athletics, as did Milo of Croton.^^ Sculptor and poet 
labored to perpetuate their honor and fame. But it must be 
emphasized that participation in athletic contests played a 
large part in the life of all Greeks who were not debarred by 
reason of some physical deformity or weakness. Men of the 
city daily congregated in the palaestra to practice and to watch 
others. In the latter part of the sixth century, when genre 
scenes began to establish themselves in vase paintings, pictures 
of athletes became common, although they may be found 
throughout the period. ^^ The Spartans are said to have 
engaged in gymnastic exercises before the battle of Thermo- 
pylae.^^ Constant practice developed strength and symmetry 
of body, and with this came the keen appreciation of physical 
beauty which was so basic a Hellenic trait. 

From the extant literature of the sixth century it might 
easily be imagined that a Greek spent three fourths of his 
time at banquets. Thanks to the Deipnosophistae of Athenaeus 
many fragments of drinking songs are preserved from writers 
whose other works have almost entirely disappeared. Even 

46 Fowler and Wheeler, op. cit., p. 483. 

4"^ For example, at the tomb of lolaus. Cf. Pindar, 01. IX. 98 
et seq. 

48 The greater Panathenaia was founded by Peisistratus though 
based on the earlier ordinary Panathenaia. 

4^ On the death of Miltiades, founder of the Chersonese, he was 
heroized and gymnastic contests were established in his honor. Cf. 
Herodotus, VI. 38. 

50 Herodotus, III. 137. 

51 Walters, op. cit., vol. i, p. 417; vol. ii, p. 162. 

52 Herodotus, VH. 208. 



MEN— CIVIC AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES yi 

if it is supposed that a disproportionate amount of poetry- 
relating to feasting and drinking remains, it is evident that 
they held the central position among men's social occupations. 
The rich must have often entertained, and men with many 
friends found life a round of banquets. Yet "not every night 
does it fall to our lot to live delicately," said Theognis.^^ But 
while the quiet meals at home were unsung, there is ample 
material, literary and archaeological, to furnish a picture of 
the more formal feasts. At banquets other than wedding 
feasts women of good repute were never present. ^^ Guests 
reclined on couches before low tables. Slave boys and girls, 
flute players, and dancers provided amusement. Sometimes 
the dogs lay under the table. ^^ Such are the pictures shown 
by numerous vases belonging to this period. ^^ 

Eating was only a subordinate part of the Symposium. 
Consequently there was little elaborately prepared food. Cook- 
ing had not yet become a fine art. Bread, ^^ cakes, sometimes 
mixed with lentils or sesame, ^^ cheese,^^ figs,^^ and honey^^ 
were staple articles of diet. The lower classes were largely 
dependent on "figs and a barley loaf, food for a slave". ^^ A 
dish made of cheese, honey, and garlic was a favorite. ^^ Fish 
of various kinds, especially tunny, was popular.^* Pork was 
the most used of meat,^^ and small game, such as partridge 

^^Theognis, 474. 
5 4 Herodotus, V. 18. 

5 5 Furtwangler and Reichhold, op. cit., II. pi. j^, 105. 
^^ Monumenti Inediti, Publicati dall'Instituto di corrispondensa 
archeologica (Rome, 1857), VI. pi. Zo- 
57 Solon, 2)Z'', Hipponax, 15. 
5 8 Solon, 23) \ Hipponax, ZZ- 
5 9 Hipponax, 15. 
^^Ihid., 15. 
^'^ Ibid., 33. 
^^ Ibid., 32. 
^^Ibid. 
^"^Ibid. 
^^ Ibid., 69. 



72 



SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 



and hares, was also served. ^^ The national dish of Sparta 
was the famous "black broth." ^"^ 

After eating, a libation was poured, and the drinking began. 
Xenophanes describes the scene : "Now the floor is clean, and 
the hands of all, and the cups. One slave adorns us with 
twisted wreaths, and another stretches out fragrant perfume 
in a dish. The mixing bowl stands filled with happiness. An- 
other wine is ready, which says it will never betray any one, 
mild in the jars, smelling of flowers. In our midst, frank- 
incense sends up a holy odor. Cold water is here sweet and 
pure. Golden bread lies nearby and the table of honor is 
weighed down with cheese and rich honey. In the centre 
the altar is adorned with flowers. Song and rejoicing hold the 
house. First must the merry-making men hymn the god with 
religious phrases and pure words. After the libations and 
prayers for power to act justly, — for these are the next things 
at hand, — it is not unwonted to drink as much as one can and 
yet come home without an attendant, unless one be very old. 
That man is to be praised who, after drinking, displays such 
good things as memory and effort in behalf of virtue. Nor 
does he tell of battles with Titans or Giants or Centaurs, phan- 
tasies of olden times, nor violent strife of citizens. In these 
there is nothing good, but to honor the gods that is yirtue."^^ 
Such was the feast the philosopher enjoyed. But more to his 
taste than the boisterous revels in which young nobles de- 
lighted were serious and dignified conversations. "These are 
the things to talk about before the fire in winter, reclining 
on a soft couch, having eaten your full, drinking sweet ^Wine 
and eating vetches : Who are you and whence came you ? How 
many years have you seen? How old were you when the 
Mede came?"^^ 

The day of the symposia of Socrates and Plato was not yet 

66 Hipponax, ZZ- 

67 Plutarch, Lycurgus, I2. 

68 Xenophanes, i. 
^^Ibid., g. 



MEN— CIVIC AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES 73 

come, but their germ was already present in this early time. 
Even Theognis knew the pleasure it was **to be invited to a 
feast and sit beside a man versed in all wisdom; to under- 
stand him whenever he speaks with judgment, that you may 
learn from him and return home with this gain."''^ !But the 
feast that Theognis enjoyed was generally a more light-hearted 
affair. ''Now let us drink and enjoy ourselves, speaking fair 
words. The future's in the care of the gods."''^ And Pho- 
cylides declares, — 'Tt is right when the cups go round at a 
symposium to sit chattering sweet words and to drink wine.'*''^ 
Drinking was accompanied by song, more or less boisterous, 
as the case might be."^^ "Come, let us no longer thus with 
clash and confusion practise Scythian drinking, but moderately 
drink, with fair hymns."'''* Jokes flew round the table thick 
and fast, and to take them well was the sign of good sports- 
manship.*^^ 

Herodotus describes vividly the feast given by Cleisthenes 
of Sicyon to the wooers of his daughter Agariste. "After the 
feast was ended the suitors vied with each other in music 
and in speaking on a given subject. Presently, as the drink- 
ing advanced, Hippocleides, who quite dumbfounded the rest, 
called aloud to the flute player, and bade him strike up a 
dance, which the man did and Hippocleides danced to it. 
And he fancied that he was dancing excellently well, but 
Cleisthenes, who was observing him, began to misdoubt the 
whole business. Then Hippocleides, after a pause, told an 
attendant to bring in a table, and when it was brought, he 
mounted upon it, and danced first of all some Laconian fig- 
ures, then some Attic ones; after which he stood on his 
head upon the table, and began to toss his legs about. "''^ As 

''^o Theognis, 563-566. 

'^'^Ibid., 1047-48. 

■^2 Phocylides, 9. 

73 Theognis, 531-534; 934-944- 

"^^Anacreon, 45, a. 

"-^ 5 Theognis, 311. 

"^ 6 Herodotus, VI. 129. 



74 



SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 



his conduct lost the Athenian his bride, it may be supposed 
that young nobles behaved more circumspectly and that such 
actions were ordinarily left to slave entertainers. 

The poets repeatedly give directions for the mixing of the 
wine, as well as frequently reflect on its use and abuse. The 
Scythian custom of drinking wine unmixed with water was 
accounted barbarous "^"^ and immoderate, for "those who have 
drunk pure wine consider Httle."''^ Alcaeus recommended 
that two measures of water to one of wine be used.*^^ Ana- 
creon in one place prescribed the same combination,^^ while at 
another time he advised five measures of water to three of 
wine.^^ Xenophanes directed that the water be poured in 
first and the wine over it.^^ Wine provided Theognis with a 
favorite theme over which to moralize. "Wine, in part I 
praise thee, in part I blame. Nor can I wholly hate thee, nor 
wholly love thee. Thou art good and bad."^^ And again, he 
says : "To drink much wine is bad, but if a man drink pru- 
dently, it is not bad but good."^^ 

A custom to be mentioned in connection with banquets is 
that recorded by the so-called kalos vases. Certain vases, 
chiefly cylixes, bear the name of a man, together with the 
word KttXds. A few have a girl's name with the adjective 
in the feminine. ^^ Some are more indefinite, with merely the 
phrase o Trals KaXos. These last must have been kept in 
stock by all potters, while the former were made to order. 
The names to a great extent belong to members of aristo- 

'^''' Herodotus, VI. 84; Anacreon, 45 a. 
'^^ Hipponax, 67, 
■^^ Alcaeus, 44. 
8 Anacreon, 45. 
8i/&irf., 31. 

82 Xenophanes, 4. 

83 Theognis, 873-875- 
^^Ibid., 211-212; 509-510. 

85 About 30 out of 560. Cf. Klein, Die Griechischen Vasen mit 
Liehlingsinschriften, 2nd. ed. (Leipsic, 1898), p. 2. 



MEN— CIVIC AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES 



75 



cratic families. ^^ The complete significance of these cups is 
unknown, but they mark the Athenian tribute to beauty as 
well as to friendship. Perhaps they were used as place-cards 
or favors at a modern dinner party. The specimens found 
belong to the Attic ware of the last half of the sixth century 
and later, that is, to a period when society was becoming more 
highly developed and more luxurious. ^^ 

The out-of-door life of the athlete introduces an atmos- 
phere quite different from that of the drinking songs. Prob- 
ably most men found pleasure in both palaestra and banquet 
hall. That Alcaeus enjoyed such a sport as sailing is shown 
by one of his fragments. "Why do we turn from the sea, 
letting the cold clear air pass like a drunken sleep? If 
going aboard at once, we grasped the rudder and loosed the 
ship, turning the sailyard to face the wind, we would be 
gayer and of happy heart, and it would take the place of a 
long draught of wine."^^ 

In such bits of poetry, in love songs, and in drinking songs 
may be seen the ideal of pleasure which this age raised. 
Simonides said: "Without pleasure, what life is desirable for 
mortals, or what tyranny? Without it not even the life time 
of the gods is enviable." ^^ This i^Sov^, which all men sought, 
is the usual theme of the poets. *T delight in drinking and in 
singing to the flute. I delight in carrying the sweet-voiced lyre 
in my hands. "^^ So sang Theognis. And Alcaeus cries out: 
*T feel the coming of the flowery spring ; quickly mix the bowl 
of honey-sweet wine."^^ The pleasure of the senses in the 
beauty of spring and of youth, in love, in feasting and drink- 
ing, seems to fulfill all the longings of the ordinary Greek of 
this century. The world is fair, life is short, seize what pleas- 
es Klein, op. cit., p. 2. 
^■^For the best discussion of the subject, see Klein, op. cit. 

88 Alcaeus, Edmonds, op. cit., p. 6. 

89 Simonides, 54. 

9 Theognis, 533-534- 
91 Alcaeus, 71. 



76 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

ures ye may, — these at least are the moods most commonly 
expressed. ^^ 

An important Greek social institution binding men together 
was that of guest-friendship. Relations under the name of 
ievia were formal, not personal, and rested on the most 
sacred basis. Ordinary hospitality among the Greeks implied 
the formation of strong bonds of friendship and loyalty.^' 
Guest-friendship was still more powerful. It was hereditary, 
and often continued through many generations. By it mem- 
bers of different states were joined together. Thus a man 
might have never met his ''friends", and yet be bound to them 
by unbreakable ties. When a guest-friend came from across 
the sea, Theognis lamented that he was not able to entertain 
him more worthily. But in spite of poverty he must receive 
him in a fitting manner, and fulfill this supreme obligation, 
"so as not to fail one guest-friend of my father's." ^^ A 
Greek and a barbarian might be guest-friends to one another. 
Such a relationship, for example, existed between Polycrates 
of Samos and Amasis of Egypt. ^^ This guest-friendship was 
terminated on the initiative of Amasis by a formal dissolution 
of the contract. ^^ Both the making and the breaking of such 
bonds would be accompanied by religious ceremonies. 

92 Mimnermus, passim. 

9 3 Archilochus, 86; Herodotus, IX. i6. 

94 Theognis, 511-522. 

95 Herodotus, II. 182. 
Q^Ibid., III. 43. 



CHAPTER V 
Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce 

By the opening of the sixth century the great period of 
Greek expansion and colonization was nearing its close. Greek 
cities had grown up throughout the Mediterranean world, 
bound in varying degrees of relationship by ties of economic 
dependence as well as of blood. The first strong impetus had 
been given to industry and commerce. The economic inde- 
pendence of the family unit had broken down some time 
since. Commercial relationships of city with city were grow- 
ing more complicated, and a future economic interdependence 
was approaching. Such states as Miletus and Corinth, which 
had mothered many cities, had rosy prospects before them. 
Athens had taken no part in this colonial expansion, unless 
fortification of Sigeum about 600 B.C. be thus classified.^ As 
yet she was unimportant in the commercial world, but by 
keeping her growing population at home she had created for 
herself an economic problem which could not be solved on 
the basis of the agricultural economy by which she had here- 
tofore lived. She was as ready as any of the Greek states 
for industrial development. 

Yet in spite of this necessary trend toward industrial devel- 
opment, the Greeks of the seventh century were primarily 
agricultural. Not only the rural population was dependent on 
the soil, but the townspeople also cultivated land for their 
sustenance, using the immediately surrounding territory. The 
description by Hesiod of Boeotian life about 700 B.C. still 
applied to many communities at a later date. In such places 
practically all men were farmers or herdsmen on a greater or 
lesser scale. The farm buildings and primitive implements 

1 Hicks and Hill, op. cit., 7; Bury, History of Greece (London, 
1900), p. 196. 

77 



78 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

were the product of hard labor. ^ The demand for manufac- 
tured goods was small and could almost be met by members 
of the household. In each community was a forge, where 
arms, armour, and metal implements were fashioned.^ There 
were also local leather workers and potters.* Weaving was 
done at home by the members of the family and the female 
slaves. Slaves were, however, few, and the master shared 
actively in the work.^ The gain of commerce did not equal the 
risk of navigation. Life was maintained only by unremitting 
toil.^ 

In the sixth century also agriculture remained the funda- 
mental occupation on which the prosperity of the state and 
of its inhabitants depended. The question of a food supply 
is always most vital to the well-being of a people. Even 
where other industries were developing, agriculture was still 
more important.^ The first and chief objects of commerce 
were agricultural products.^ The oil of Attica and the wine 
of many of the Aegean islands, and other such natural prod- 
ucts, were the exports of greatest value. ^^ Agriculture fur- 
nished both means of sustenance at home and materials for 
commerce abroad. 

Along the local lines previously noted industry first devel- 
oped. With practice, technical skill advanced. Glaucus of 
Chios is said to have discovered the method of welding iron.^^ 
The knowledge of the casting of bronze is attributed to two 

2Hesiod, Wo7^k and Days, 423-436, 503. 
^Ibid., 493. 
"^Ibid., 25. 
^ Ibid., 459. 

6 Ibid., 618-694. 

7 Ibid., 382, 398-400. 

8 Beloch, op. cit., vol. i, p. 219. 

^ Francotte, op. cit., vol. i, p. 38. 

lOAleyer, Eduard, Kleine Schriften sur Geschichtstheorie iind zur 
WirtschaftUchen und Politischen Geschichte des Altertums (Halle, 
1910), p. 105. 

i^Hesiod, I. 25; Pausanias, X. 16. i. 



AGRICULTURE, INDUSTRY, AND COMMERCE 79 

Samians, Rhoecus and Theodorus, who lived a little later. ^^ 
Many local styles in the decoration of pottery flourished. 
Oriental influence in art and industry entered by way of 
Ionia. Some cities cultivated special lines of manufacture 
and became centres of trade for certain wares. Religious 
festivals furnished opportunities for commercial enterprise. ^^ 
Men of different cities not only exchanged their products, but 
their knowledge as well, and through such intercourse the 
methods of craftsmen and artists spread. 

At the beginning of the sixth century the first steps in this 
industrial and commercial development had been taken in 
some of the cities. Chalcis was known for her metal work, 
Corinth for her pottery. Aegina controlled the carrying trade 
of the western Aegean. Miletus was the intermediary by 
which Oriental objects reached Greece, and she herself was 
learning to imitate their manufacture. Technical skill had 
advanced during the seventh century. In the making of 
pottery there was a great advance. Ordinary wares were 
artistically embellished, partly through eastern influence, partly 
that they might find a wider market, since commonplace objects 
could be made in every city. Transportation had also become 
easier. Corinth is said to have made the first European 
triremes,^* and Phocaea used long penteconters, instead of the 
usual round-built merchant ship.^^ Religious festivals no 
longer afforded the only or chief opportunity for trade, 
though they were still important. 

In still another way had the seventh century made com- 
merce in the sixth century easier. The old system of barter 
had given way to the use of money. The memory of barter 
still persisted,^® and its use of naturalia was not entirely gone, 

i2Pausanias, VIII. 14.8. 

^^ Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo, 146-156; Strabo, X. 5; Pau- 
sanias, X. 32.15. Cf. Botsford, G. W., "Amphictyony", in Encyc. 
Brit., nth ed. 

1* Thucydides, I. 13. 

lo Herodotus, I. 163; Francctte, op. cit., vol. i, p. 30, n.S. 

i^Pausanias, III. 12.3. 



8o SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

as can be seen by Solon's classification of the Athenians by 
their income in medimni.^'^ In his time a sheep and a drachma 
and a medimnus of corn were each equivalent to the other. ^® 
The question of the introduction and adoption of coinage is 
a mooted one, but for the most part it belongs to an earlier 
period than the one under consideration. It is usually said 
to have been imitated from Lydia.^^ Pheidon of Argos 
(eighth century) is credited with being the, first in Greece to 
stamp money, ^^ though according to Herodotus he merely 
established weights and measures. ^^ Miletus, Phocaea, Samos, 
and other Ionian cities were the first to adopt a coinage. 
Their example was followed by Chalcis, Eretria, and Corinth, 
and others as their economic importance developed. ^^ In the 
sixth century money was widely diffused, and the coins of the 
period are of historical interest. 

The problem of early Athenian coinage has given rise to 
much disagreement among authorities. It is known that the 
Aeginetan standard was in use but no Athenian coins belong- 
ing to that standard have been found. ^^ Solon seems to have 
instituted the first Athenian coinage, which belonged to the 
Euboic standard.^* This was probably as much for the pur- 
pose of facilitating trade with Chalcis, Corinth and the other 
cities which used this standard, and of freeing Athens of 
Aeginetan influence, as for lightening debts of the people by a 
kind of debasement of coinage. ^^ Both the Aeginetan and the 

17 Plutarch, Solon, i8. 
^^Ibid., 23. 

1^ Herodotus, I. 94. Cf. Beloch, op. cit., vol. i, p. 214 et seq. (ed. 
1893). 

20Strabo. VIII. 3.33; VIII. 6.16. 

21 Herodotus, VI. 127; Gardner, P., A History of Ancient Coinage 
(Oxford, 19x8), p. 112. 

22 Hill, G. F., A Handbook of Greek and Roman Coins (London, 
1899), p. 8. 

2^ Ibid., p. 40. 

24 Plutarch, Solon, 15; Aristotle, Ath. Const., 10; Gardner, op. cit., 

p. 143. 

25 Ridgeway, W., The Origin of Metallic Currency and Weight 
Standards (Cambridge, 1892), p. 324. 



AGRICULTURE, IXDUSTRV, AXD COMMERCE 8l 

Euboic-Chalcidic standards, as well as minor variations, were 
in use throughout the sixth century. ^^ The Greek cities of 
Italy and Sicily were usually influenced in their choice of a 
standard by their parent city, for for sometime after coloniza- 
tion they continued to use imported money, not adopting 
coinage of their own until c. 550 B.C.^^ 

Natural products were the first objects of trade. Wine, oil, 
and the ever necessary- grain were exported by the countries 
that produced them in abundance to the places where they 
were needed. Lesbos, for example, specialized in wine.^^ 
Athens found her most promising opportunity in the culture 
of the olive for oil. Certain agricultural regulations were 
included in the legislation of Solon. -^ Olive and fig trees 
could not be planted within nine feet of a neighbor's property, 
other trees within five feet. Bee-keeping was evidently com- 
mon in Attica, as is shown by the prohibition of placing a hive 
within three hundred feet of a hive established by another 
man. The old occupation of grazing, whose ancient import- 
ance is shown by the association of Aegicores with a class of 
the population, fell behind agriculture in this period as the 
need for greater production in the latter field increased. Yet 
according to Plutarch Attica was better fitted for pasturage 
than for the growing of crops. ^^ 

At the opening of the sixth century the most important 
cities of the Greek world, from an economic point of view, 
were Miletus and Phocaea, on the eastern coast of the Aegean, 
and Aegina, Corinth and Chalcis, on the western coast. They 
were centres both of industry and commerce. Many of the 
other cities of the Asia Elinor coast were also prominent. The 
cities, for example, represented at Naucratis (founded c. 630) 
were Miletus, Samos, Chios, Teos, Phocaea, Clazomenae^ 

2 6 Hill, op. cit.. pp. 34-38. 

^"^ Ibid., pp. 21-26. 

28Alcaeus, 46. — "Plant no other tree before the vine." 

29 Plutarch, Solon, 23. 



82 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

Mytilene, Halicarnassus, Cnidos, Rhodes, Phaselis, and one 
city of the west, — Aegina. Of these Miletus, Samos and 
Aegina seem to have been the most important, since they had 
separate temples, while the others combined in supporting a 
temple called the Hellenium.^^ 

The influence of the older civilizations of Lydia, Persia, 
and Egypt upon industry and commerce was especially great 
at this time. Herodotus says that Croesus was the first of 
the barbarians to hold relations with the Greeks. ^^ Certainly 
the sixth century saw a closer relationship with the East than 
any previous period. The full extent of the cultural influence 
of Lydia upon Greece is not yet known, but archaeological 
excavations will doubtless throw more light on the subject. 
Occasional references in the poets show that both social and 
commercial relationships were maintained with the Lydians. 
A passage in Sappho testifies to a Lydian-Greek marriage.'* 
Lydian leather work was highly prized for sandals.'* 
Xenophanes speaks of the Greeks "learning useless luxuries 
from the Lydians."'^ Highly valued luxuries came from the 
east, — gold, ivory, and ebony from Ethiopia;'^ frankincense, 
myrrh, cinnamon and other spices from Arabia.''' Egypt, 
moreover, was now open to Greek trade, as the founding of 
Naucratis indicated. Greek mercenaries who served under 
Psammetichus and his successors brought back tales of the 
wonders of this ancient land, and doubtless led others on to 
engage in commerce with it. Wine was imported into Egypt 

SI Herodotus, II. 178. Naucratis, granted by Amasis to the Greeks 
who came to Egypt for commercial purposes, was also the head- 
quarters for Greek traders who did not settle there. 

^^ Ibid., I. 6. "He conquered the Aeolians, lonians, and Dorians 
of Asia, forcing some to become tributary to him and forming 
alliances with others. He also made a treaty with the Lacedae- 
monians." 

S3 Sappho, Edmonds, J. M., op. cit., p. 13. 

34/fetU, 17. 

35 Xenophanes, 3. Cf. Francotte, op. cit., vol. i, p. 138. 

36 Herodotus, III. 114. 
37/&tU, III. 107. 



AGRICULTURE, INDUSTRY, AND COMMERCE 83 

from Greece. ^^ Solon is said to have visited Egypt for busi- 
ness purposes as well as for the pleasure of travel. ^^ From 
Egypt the Greeks gained a knowledge of the lore and wisdom 
of the past which the Egyptians had long been storing up. 
This they put to use, but they so transformed it by their 
creative genius that it is often difficult to recognize. The 
influence of Egypt may well have been still more potent than it 
appears. 

Miletus was the leading city of Ionia. Herodotus says that 
after the death of the tyrant Thrasybulus {c. 610) and the 
arbitration of the subsequent domestic upheaval, she devoted 
herself to peaceable occupations and became the "glory of 
Ionia." ^^ She owed her position in the sixth century in large 
part to the relations she maintained with Lydia,*^ and after- 
wards with Persia. Contact with the highly developed civili- 
zation of the East gave impetus to her own manufactures, 
and likewise made her the intermediary through which oriental 
wares reached the rest of the Greek world. Especially noted 
was her trade with Sybaris.*^ This position of preeminence 
she maintained throughout the sixth century. In her market 
were to be found fine woolen cloth, carpets, dyes, perfumes, 
and other luxuries, which her ships carried throughout the 
Greek world. 

After Miletus, Phocaea was the most powerful commercial 
city in Asia Minor. In the preceding centuries she had sent 
out many colonies and thus widely extended her influence. 
The period of her greatest power, however, seems to have 
been about 602-560 B.C.*^ The coins of this period are 
widely scattered. She seems to have had least influence on 

38 Herodotus, III. 6. Cf. Francotte, op. cit., vol. i, p. 134 et seq. 

39 Plutarch, Solon, 2, 26; Aristotle, Ath. Const., 11. 

4^ Herodotus, V. 28. Miletus exported pottery and wool. Cf. 
Francotte, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 66, 78, 130. 

41 Herodotus, I. 22. 

^^Ihid., VI. 21; cf. Timaeus, fr. 60 (Muller, I. 205). 

43 Hill, op. cit. She had a great ceramic industry. Cf. Francotte, 
€p. cit., vol. i, p. 35. 



84 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

the coast to the southward, for here other cities blocked her 
way. But she evidently had close relations with Thasos and 
Thrace, and her voyages to Tartessus in Spain show how far 
westward her ships sometimes went.^* Her prosperity, how- 
ever, was not long continued. In 545 B.C., the city was 
destroyed by the Persians and the people took refuge in their 
western colony Alalia, in Corsica.*^ 

The disappearance of Phocaea contributed to the growth of 
Ephesus.^^ This latter city, and likewise Smyrna, were situ- 
ated to serve as intermediaries in the trade between east and 
west, and their prosperity advanced accordingly.^"^ The island 
cities also became commercially important. Samos carried on 
trade with Egypt and with the far West. On one occasion, at 
least, her sailors penetrated as far as Tartessus in Spain, which 
Herodotus says was then unfrequented by Greek merchants, 
although the Phocaeans had also gone there. She exported 
fine woolen and purple cloth and her pottery was noted, 
though not much of it has been found. ^^ Under Polycrates 
(c. 537 B.C.), she reached the height of her prosperity. 
Naxos produced wine, and is said to have at one time sur- 
passed all other islands in prosperity. ^^ Other islands whose 
commerce flourished were Lesbos, Thasos, and Chios. ^° This 
last island exported wine and pottery, and had a slave 
market. ^^ Further north, Cyzicus and Byzantium profited 
from their fisheries. Cyzicus was also a wine centre for the 
region about Pontus. The geographical location of the cities 
of the coast of Asia Minor caused them to become trading 

4-4 Herodotus, I. 163. "The Phocaeans were the first of the Greeks 
who made long voyages." 
^^Ibid., I. 165. 

46 Holm, History of Greece (London, 1894), vol. i, p. 335. 
47Strabo, XIV. 2.29. 

48 Walters, H. B., History of Ancient Pottery (New York, 1905), 
vol. i, p. 58, note 2. 

49 Herodotus, V. 28. 
50 Ibid., I. 165. 

5lFrancotte, op cit., vol. i, pp. 53, 55- 



AGRICULTURE, INDUSTRY, AND COMMERCE 85 

centres at an early period. The contour of the coast made 
navigation easy, and the fact that they were situated com- 
paratively close together made them turn to exchange as a 
natural outlet for their industries. 

Aegina was the first important commercial city in the west. 
Forced by her unproductive soil to seek her livelihood by some 
other means than agriculture, she turned to industry and trade. 
Her metal work and pottery early became popular and found 
their way to various parts of the Greek world. ^^ "Aeginetan 
ware" became a familiar term.^^ The wide distribution of 
her commerce is attested to by the spread of the Aeginetan 
standard of coinage, which reached as far east as Cilicia and 
Cyprus and as far west as Sicily.^* In return for her small 
wares Aegina imported foodstuffs. At the end of the sixth 
century, and doubtless much earlier also, grain was brought 
from the Black Sea region. ^^ With the growth of other 
commercial cities Aegina's preeminence was called into ques- 
tion. Especially keen was her rivalry with Athens. Jealousy, 
added to ancient feuds, led to bitter enmity and frequent open 
warfare between them.^^ 

Another city which declined as Athens rose in power was 
Corinth. Her position in the earlier period is marked by the 
importance of Corinthian pottery. ^'^ Under the Bacchiadae 
she had become one of the leading powers and her prosperity 
continued under Cypselus and Periander. To her advanta- 
geous situation she owed much of her good fortune. She lay 

52 Walters, op cit., vol. i, p. 54; Francotte, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 56, 
66, 91. 

53Strabo, VIII. 6.16. 

54 Hill, Historical Greek Coins (London, 1906), p. 5. 

55 Xerxes at the Hellespont saw grain vessels on their way to 
Aegina and the Peloponnese. Herodotus, VII. 147. 

5 6/Hrf. 

57 Walters, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 50-52, 317-321. The latest class of 
Corinthian vases belongs to 660-550 B.C. One vase of this class 
resembles the Chest of Cypselus at Olympia, described by Pausanias, 
V. 17.5-19. 10. Cf. Francotte, op. cit., vol. i, p. 61. 



86 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

at the meeting place of east and west, for merchants from 
Asia and from Sicily often preferred to transport their goods 
across the Isthmus rather than to risk the more dangerous 
route around Cape Malea.^^ For this privilege a toll was paid 
to Corinth, which, while moderate, yielded a large revenue. 
The Isthmian Games, celebrated nearby, were also of advan- 
tage to the city, for they attracted large numbers of people, 
many of whom came for business as well as rehgious pur- 
poses. ^^ The Greek games, both Great and lesser, were always 
important centres of trade. Corinth, moreover, maintained 
close commercial relations with her colonies. The tyrant 
Cypselus supported this form of expansion and his successor, 
Periander, pursued a practical policy by aiding the free indus- 
trial population at home as well as by encouraging intercourse 
with Lydia and Egypt. ^^ During the sixth century Corinth's 
supremacy waned. Less progress was made under the oli- 
garchy than under the tyrants, and the forward movement 
in other cities, notably Athens, swept them ahead, while 
Corinth remained conservative and static. Francotte suggests 
that the decay of Corinth was due to the policy of control by 
the state and for the state, which was practised, instead of a 
policy of individual initiative, which might have led to its 
becoming a great democratic commercial power. ^^ 

Chalcis was both agricultural and industrial. The possession 
of land marked the rich, but the valuable copper-mines of 
Euboea also brought wealth to the Chalcidians.®^ Chalcidic 
metal work was famous. ^^ Cups and other beautifully 

58 Strabo, VIII. 6.20. 

^^ Ibid. Her exports included metal work and wool as well as 
pottery. Cf. Francotte, op. cif., vol. i, pp. 78, 91. 

60Nic. Dam. fr, 59, 60 (Miiller, III. 393, 394). Also Heracl. Pont. 
5 (Miiller, II. 213) ; Herodotus, III. 48. 

61 Francotte, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 107-108. 

^^Ibid., vol. i, pp. 32, 3S- 

63 Pottery inscribed in the Chalcidic dialect shows signs of imita- 
tion of metal originals. Cf. Walters, op. cit., vol. i, p. 321. Also 
Francotte, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 66, 89. 



AGRICULTURE, INDUSTRY, AND COMMERCE 87 

wrought vessels were prized by rich men or as temple prop- 
erty, while Chalcidic arms were no less sought after. ^* The 
prosperity of Chalcis was brought to a sudden end by her 
subjugation by Athens towards the close of the century. 

In more distant parts of the world important Greek cities 
were also growing up. The foundation of Naucratis has 
already been mentioned. Cyrene was a centre for the export 
of products of northern Africa, which were largely agricul- 
tural. So-called Cyrenaic vases may mark some industrial 
development, though they have been found at Naucratis and 
Samos rather than at Cyrene. ^^ Silphium was grown in this 
part of Africa ^^ and its importance in the trade of Cyrene is 
known by the ''Arcesilaus Vase", which shows the king watch- 
ing a ship being loaded with silphium. ^"^ This vase probably 
belongs to the second quarter of the sixth century. In the 
west the Sicilian and Italian cities were chiefly agricultural.^^ 
That they carried on extensive trade with the cities of Greece 
proper is shown by the large amount of pottery, especially 
Athenian, found throughout Italy. ^^ The Greek cities were 
intermediaries in the trade with the natives of Latium, Cam- 
pania, and Etruria. Cumae and Sybaris were particularly 
well situated to profit by this means. The Sybarites imported 
their luxuries from Etruria and from the east.''^^ Their use 
of Milesian wool was responsible for their close friendship 
with Miletus, already noted. Wine was their chief product, 
which they in part used and in part exported. "^^ Their great 
prosperity made possible an indulgence in luxury that was 
eastern in its magnificence, and they so far outstripped their 

64Alcaeus, 56.6. XaXKiBiKai airaeai ; cf. Francotte, op. cit., vol. i, p. 88, 
^^ Walters, op. cit., vol, i, pp. 341-344. 
6 6 Herodotus, IV. 169. 

67 Baumeister, A., Denkm'dler des klassischcn Altertunis, 3 vols. 
(Munich, 1884-88), vol. iii, p. 1664, fig. 1728. 

68 Herodotus, VII. 155 ; Diodorus, XHI. 81. 

69 Walters, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 72-87. 
'^OTimaeus, fr. 60 (Miiller, I. 205). 
^^Ihid. 



88 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

neighbors that, though their city soon vanished, sybaritic 
became a lasting synonym for luxurious. 

Athens was the city that progressed most during the sixth 
century. At the beginning of the period industry and com- 
merce were undeveloped and a large part of her population 
was in poverty and despair. By the opening of the Persian 
War she was one of the foremost cities of Greece from an 
economic and a political point of view, and she had a large 
free population trained by individual effort in industry and 
trade to take an independent part in political affairs. "^^ This 
development was gradual but steady and received its greatest 
impulses from the legislation of Solon and the fostering care 
of Peisistratus. They also aided the agricultural classes of 
the community, for they realized that agriculture was the 
foundation upon which economic stability depended. Eduard 
Meyer notes that Attica was originally commercially dependent 
on x\egina and that her emancipation began when the Chalcidic 
standard of coinage was adopted by Solon7^ The rivalry 
between the two states continued throughout the century and 
ended in the downfall of Aegina. In the same way Athens 
had gradually assumed the ascendancy over other states. She 
was preparing for her great period, the fifth century. 

Solon's reforms aimed to set the state on a sure economic 
foundation. He reaHzed that it was not sufficient to remove 
the mortgage pillars and to restore the enslaved to liberty,''* 
but that constructive measures must likewise be taken. "See- 
ing that the city was filled with men who had come from all 
countries to take refuge in Attica,''^ that much of the country 

■^ 2 Early political training in Attica was gained through the nau- 
craries, subdivisions of the tribes (twelve to a tribe), each of which 
provided a ship, and through which taxes were assessed and admin- 
istered. 

'''3 Meyer, op. cit., p. 194. 

74 Solon, 3:2, 3.17. 

■^5 The presence of foreigners in the sixth century in Athens is 
marked by inscriptions. — Roberts, E. S., and Gardiner, E. A., Intro- 
duction to Greek Epigraphy (Cambridge, 1887, 1905), vol. i, p. 47, — 
Archermus, who was a Chian marble worker; p. 48, an islander 
( vr](ri6jTrts) , who was a musician { Kidap(i>86s,). 



AGRICULTURE, INDUSTRY, AND COMMERCE 89 

was poor and unproductive, and that merchants were unwilling 
to send goods into a country which had nothing to export, 
he encouraged his fellow citizens to enter trade." "^^ Hereto- 
fore agriculture had been the only honorable occupation, but 
Solon, knowing that the soil was too poor to support so many 
people, gave honor to other means of gaining a livelihood.''^ 
The Areopagus was to oversee all and to require industry on 
the part of every one. Since the products of agriculture were 
required at home, Solon forbade the exportation of all except 
oil.'^^ This, together with the earthenware vessels in which it 
was shipped, became the source of Athenian prosperity. 

The wide distribution of Athenian pottery marks the grow- 
ing power of Athens. The vases of the period fall into several 
groups. Black-figured ware, showing black figures against a 
reddish background, was made until the last quarter of the 
century. Red-figured ware, on which the colors were reversed, 
then begins to appear, and the early work of this type belongs 
to the period immediately preceding the Persian Wars. 
Vases with black or polychrome figures against a white ground 
were introduced into Athens at about the same time. The 
well-known Panathenaic Amphorae, used as prizes for Pana- 
thenaic contests, were introduced in the sixth century and their 
use continued with type almost unchanged for several hundred 
years. '''^ At Athens itself only fragments of vases are found, 
because of the complete destruction of the city by the Persians 
in 480 B.C. The best Athenian vases of the period have been 
found in far distant parts of the Greek world. Large numbers 
of them were discovered throughout Italy, from Etruria to 
Apulia. ^^ At Vulci in particular the fabric of all periods was 
found, and Cervetri also yielded much early pottery. ^^ Athe- 

■^6 Plutarch, Solon, 22. 

T^Ibid. 

"^^Ibid., 24. 

'^^ Simonides, 135.4. 

80 Walters, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 72-87. 

^'^ Ibid., pp. 75-79. 



90 



SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 



nian ware was also imported into Sicily. ^^ The Black Sea 
region was also falling under Athenian commercial influence 
as is shown by Attic Black and Red-figured ware found at 
Olbia and other Milesian colonies. ^^ As Miletus waned 
Athens stepped into her place. 

There is no doubt that the manufacture of pottery was one 
of the chief Greek industries, and that at Athens it held a 
place of greater importance than did the wool and metal 
industries. M. Francotte does not think the ceramic industry 
was important from an economic point of view, saying that 
the total output could be the product of a comparatively small 
number or workshops and workers. ^^ While this may be true 
by modern standards, at that period the industry was relatively 
of great importance, and employed a relatively large number 
of men. As the artisans prospered they were able to buy 
slaves and "factories" on a small scale were set up. Towards 
the end of the century an average establishment would have 
from fifteen to twenty workers. ^^ These would consist of 
citizens, metics, and slaves, who, in spite of political distinc- 
tions, worked together in democratic fashion. ^^ There was 
division of labor among the manager and his helpers who 
prepared the material, who decorated, who fired the pottery, 
and so on, but on the whole the workers exhibited much versa- 
tility. Women may have occasionally been employed, to judge 
from some vase paintings. ^"^ Meaningless letters on vases 
show that workers were sometimes illiterate. That many 
potters were of foreign origin is shown by such names as 
Scythes, Lydos, Amasis, Colchos, Thrax, while on the other 
hand Greek names — Clitias, Epictetus, Euphemius, etc., oc- 



82 Walters, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 86, 87. 

^^ Ibid., p. 61. 

84 Francotte, op. cit., vol. i. pp. 73-77. 

8 5 Pettier, Edmond, op. cit., p. 39. 

^^Ihid., p. 21. 

8 7 C/. Pettier, op. cit., p. 20. 

88 Walters, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 273 et seq.; Pettier, op. cit., p. 19. 



AGRICULTURE, INDUSTRY, AND COMMERCE 91 

The industrial and economic progress of the sixth century 
meant not only material advancement but a forward move- 
ment in intellectual Hfe as well. The struggle to meet the 
needs of daily living grew easier and more leisure was found 
for other occupations. The venturesome spirit which up to 
this time had found its outlet in colonization and physical 
strife was now turned in a new direction by a few men who 
were seized with a passion for investigation and explanation. 
The world must be understood as well as lived in. Alongside 
of and mingled with the old myths, metaphysical interpreta- 
tions of the universe came into being. Intercourse with other 
peoples, made possible by increased facility of navigation and 
fostered by commerce, opened new realms for investigation 
and quickened the imagination. The Greeks had begun to 
think. In this field, as in others, the lonians led the way. In 
Miletus and other prosperous cities of the Asia Minor coast, 
the first philosophers were found. Anaximander, Hecataeus, 
and Thales began their investigations in the field of philoso- 
phy, geography, and political science. Their influence spread 
westward and their pupils carried their teachings to all parts 
of the Hellenic world, developing new ideas as they went. Of 
those who went to Sicily and Magna Graecia Pythagoras was 
most important. Everywhere except in Sparta the new spirit 
was evident. The Greeks had discovered their intellectual 
power and had begun to use it. 



CHAPTER VI 
Religion 

Religion and religious institutions were potent forces in the 
moulding of Hellenic individual and social life in the sixth 
century. The belief that the gods were still near to mortals 
and that men must honor and fear them and seek to know 
and do their will, was widespread and sincere. Consequently 
channels of communication with the gods, such as oracles and 
omens, were popular and powerful. Festivals were observed 
and sacred rites duly performed. The state, still more than 
the individual, must maintain relations with the immortals. 
Religion and politics were indissolubly connected. Specula- 
tion was beginning in Ionia, and was spreading westward, 
but the masses were little troubled by it, and adhered to old 
customs and beliefs throughout the period. Through games 
and festivals religion became an important social factor. The 
need for statues of gods and athletes led to great advances 
in sculpture. Much of the artistic work of the craftsman 
was inspired by ancient myths. Hymns to the god required 
the services of poets. Religion wielded an immense power 
over every phase of human life. 

The subject of the Games, both Great and lesser, has already 
been treated. Their part in the physical and mental develop- 
ment of the Greek race has been noted. It must be remem- 
bered that they rested on a religious basis, and the results that 
accrued from them may be properly attributed to a religious 
source. In promoting race consciousness* as well as intel- 
lectual unity, they did important service, and Greek art, both 
plastic and literary, is greatly indebted to them. 

While athletic contests were a feature of the greater num- 
ber of festivals, the terms games and festivals are not exactly 
synonymous. The former refers to those gatherings in which 
gymnastic and equestrian competitions played the principal 

92 



RELIGION 



93 



part. Festivals include religious celebrations of many kinds. 
It is difficult to realize their number and variety. They were 
held in honor of gods^ and of heroes.^ Some were nature 
festivals;^ others celebrated historical events.^ In some men 
and women of all ages mingled, while others were restricted 
in the class of their participants. A few were Panhellenic, 
but many more were local. States often sent official repre- 
sentatives (Theori) ^ and choruses to join in the great cele- 
brations.^ Individuals attended in throngs. Such assemblages 
naturally promoted trade, and festivals had a large share in 
the development of Greek commerce. Many were so ancient 
that their origin was lost to history, but new ones were often 
established. 

A common bond of race was the cause of the establishing 
of certain festivals. The Panionia, celebrated at Mycale, thus 
belonged to all the lonians.*^ The festival at Delos was also 
particularly frequented by the lonians.^ The Pamboeotia 
was held at Coronea.^ Some festivals were purely local, while 
others were observed by various peoples, perhaps simulta- 
neously, perhaps at different times. One belonging to the 
latter class was the Thesmophoria, a festival celebrated by 

1 The Great Games belong to Gods, — the Olympian and the Ne- 
mean Zeus, Poseidon, and Apollo ; and many of the other festivals 
also, such as the one in honor of Apollo Theoxenios at Pellene. Cf. 
Pindar, OL VII. 86; IX. 97 seq.; XIII. 109; Nem. X. 44. Also 
Pausanias, VII. 27.4. 

2 Cf. the festival of Adrastus at Sicyon, whose honors were later 
transferred (c. 600 B.C.) by Cleisthenes to Bacchus and Melanippus, 
whom he imported from Thebes. Vide Herodotus, V. 67. 

3 Eleusinia in honor of Demeter and Persephone. 

4 Cf. the festival to Miltiades as founder in the Chersonese. Hero- 
dotus, VI. 38. 

5Strabo, X. 5.2; Herodotus, VI. 87. 

6 Herodotus, VI. 27. 

'^Ibid., 1. 148. 

^ Hymn to Delian Apollo, 146-164. 

^Strabo, IX. 2.29; Pausanias, IX. 34.1. 



^4 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

married women very generally throughout the Greek world. -^-^ 
The Apaturia was kept by all lonians except those excluded 
for bloodguiltiness.^^ Many festivals are mentioned in Pindar, 
besides those whose victories he records, — for example, at 
Aegina,^^ at Megara,^^ at Marathon.^* Some of Pindar's 
odes celebrate victories at other than the Great Games, — at 
Argos,^^ at Thebes, ^^ and at Sicyon.^"^ 

While by this period Sparta had suppressed most of her 
liberalizing tendencies, some features of her earher civiliza- 
tion may have been preserved in the festivals which were still 
scrupulously observed. The Parthenia of Alcman were doubt- 
less still sung in the dances and choruses in which Spartan 
maidens ^^ together with girls from all Lacedaemon^® par- 
ticipated, for Spartans and Perioeci joined in religious festi- 
vals. ^^ The festival of the Gymnopaediae, at which the 
boys danced choral dances in honor of Apollo, maintained 
its importance among the Lacedaemonians throughout a long 
period. 2^ That zeal which kept them at home celebrating 
festivals instead of going to the aid of their brother Greeks 
is familiar. Once the Carneian festival, ^^ and at another 
time the Hyacinthia,^^ thus caused, or possibly provided an 
excuse for, delay. 

I'^The list of places, with references, may be found in the article on 
"Thesmophoria" (Giraud, J.), in Daremberg, C, and Saglio, M. E., 
Dktionnaire dcs Antiquifes Grecques et Romains (Paris), vol. ii, pp. 
239-242. 

11 Herodotus, I. 148. 

12 Pindar, 01 VII. 86; Pyth. IX. 90. 

13/^., 01. VII. 86; 01 XIII. 109; Pyth. IX. 91. 

14/^;., 01, IX. 89; 01. XIII. no. 

15 M, Nem. X. Cf. OL VII. 83; 01. IX. 88; 01. XIII. 107. 

16/rf., Pyth. II. Cf. 01. VII. 84; 01. XIII. 107. 

17M, Nem. IX. Cf. 01. XIII. 109; Nem. X. 43. 

18 Plutarch, Lycurgus, 13. 

i^Pausanias, III. 10.8. 

20 Herodotus, IX. 7; Thucydides, V. 18-23. 

21 Herodotus, VI. 67; Pausanias, III. 11.7. 

22 Herodotus, VI. 206. 
2S/Hc/., IX. 7. 



RELIGION 



95 



Athens too had many festivals. Those that had only local 
participants, such as the Brauronia, in honor of Artemis, in 
which maidens took part before marriage,^* preserved much 
the same character and importance throughout long stretches 
of time. Others grew with the city. The Panathenaia, the 
foundation of which tradition ascribed to Erechthonius,^^ re- 
mained a local and aristocratic celebration up to the time of 
Peisistratus. He popularized it and opened it to all Greeks, 
estabHshing the greater fete of that name held every four 
years. Not only did all Athenians, men and women, join in 
the festival, but from all parts of Hellas strangers thronged 
to take part in the contests and carry away the jar of oil as 
token of victory. ^^ At the Panathenaia the Homeric poems 
were recited according to certain regulations which the rhap- 
sodists were obliged to follow. ^"^ These regulations were 
variously ascribed to Solon^^ and to Peisistratus, ^^ but by 
authors too late to offer more than vague tradition or guesses, 
so that the actual circumstances cannot be known. Homeric 
recitations were a feature of all Greek gatherings, unless they 
were expressly forbidden, as was the case at Sicyon under 
Cleisthenes.^^ 

Another festival which was helping to draw the attention 
of all Greece to Athens was the Eleusinia. Originally purely 
local, it had become Attic when Athens gained possession of 

24 Herodotus, VI. 138. 

^^ Hellankus, p. 65 (Miiller, vol. i, p. 54). 

26 Pindar, Nem. X. 2Z-?)^- 

27 566 Lang, World of Homer (London, 1910), pp. 270271, and 
discussion pp. 281-288, Lang, p. 271, says, — "practically we know 
nothing beyond the fact that a law regulated the recitation of Homer 
at the Panathenaic festival." 

28 Diogenes Laertius, Solon, I. 59. 

29 Pseud. Plat. Hipparchus, 228 B,C. Cicero {de Oratione, XXX. 
34) says : "Peisistratus, who is said to have been the first to arrange 
as we now have them the books of Homer, before his time con- 
fused, . . ." 

3 Herodotus, V. 67. 



96 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

Eleusis, although the office of Hierophant was always con- 
trolled by members of the Eleusinian family of the Eumol- 
pidae. To its early worship of Demeter and Persephone^ ^ 
Dionysiac elements had been added. '^ It has been suggested 
that these came in early in the sixth century with the religious 
forms associated with the name of Epimenides,^^ or they may 
have been introduced by Peisistratus, who did much to pro- 
mote the worship of Dionysus. At any rate the procession 
of lacchus was a regular part of the ceremonies by the end 
of the century.^* Initiation was then open to all Greeks, but 
the fame of the mysteries was not yet widespread. ^^ The 
vision of immortality, however, which the Greeks seized upon 
as the fulfillment of so much of their spiritual aspiration, was 
gaining in power, and many besides Pindar were learning — 
"Blessed is he who, seeing these things, goes beneath the earth. 
He knows the end of life; he knows the god given begin- 
ning."^^ 

The introduction of a form of Dionysus into the Eleusinian 
cult was typical of the impetus given to the god's worship in 
the seventh and sixth centuries. ^"^ Although a foreigner from 
Thrace, he was welcomed and adopted by the Greeks and 
became as popular as any native divinity. He made special 
appeal to peasant vine-growers, and was received by all be- 
cause through his inspiration common men could be infused 
with divinity itself. As the wine-giver, poets celebrated him 
in drinking songs. ^^ On the mountain sides revelled the 
Maenads, seeking the divine frenzy that brought union with 

^1 See Homeric Hymn to Demeter. 

32 Herodotus, VIII. 65. 

33 Lenormant, F., "Eleusinia," in Daremberg-Saglio, op. cit., vol. 
ii, pp. 544-581. 

34 Herodotus, VIII. 65. 
^^Ibid. 

36 Pindar, fr. 137a. 

37 Cf. Moore, Clifford H,, The Religious Thought of the Greeks 
(Cambridge, 1916), p. 47 et seq. 

38Alcaeus, 17, 44- 



RELIGION 



97 



the god.^^ In the cities as well as in the rural districts choruses 
competed in his honor/ ^ and the victorious leaders dedicated 
offerings to him.^^ Bacchic mysteries were carried by colon- 
ists to the borders of barbarism.*^ Peisistratus, by the insti- 
tution of the Great Dionysia of the city, magnified the god's 
importance among Athenians, and in the dances of the goat- 
skin clad worshippers began the history of tragic drama. The 
popularity of the god is evident from the vases of the period, 
for Dionysiac scenes are among the favorite subjects repre- 
sented in black-figured ware.^^ 

A particularly important form of the religious revival which 
centres in the worship of Dionysus was the Orphic movement, 
which from the sixth century on exerted a profound influ- 
ence in Greek life. While the Orphic teachings of this early 
period have not been preserved, and they are known only from 
later writings, their influence was already to be observed. The 
son of Zeus and Semele became an object of popular worships* 
according to the rites which Orpheus, the Thracian singer, was 
, said to have introduced. ^^ Onamacritus, at the Peisistratid 
court, wrote Orphic hymns and induced the tyrant to honor 
the god and aid the sect, though later, tradition says, he was 
banished for forgery. ^^ The Orphic doctrines were taken up 
by Pythagoras, and the communities which his followers 
formed in Italy were practically Orphic in nature. ^"^ The 
mystic rites of Orphism appealed to emotional men, while 
some of the more rational accepted Orphism as philosophically 
interpreted by Pythagoras. Thus the movement appealed to 

S^Anacreon, 107; Simonides, 146. 

40Anacreon, 55, 57. 

^^Ibid., 96, 99. 

42 Herodotus, IV. 78. 

4SBury, J. B., A History of Greece (London, 1900), p. 201. 

44Alcaeus, 44; Anacreon, 99. 

45 Strabo, fr. 18, Vatican epitome; Ibycus, 8b. 

46 For interpolations to Musaeus. Herodotus, VII. 6. Cf. Moore, 
op. cit., p. 53. 

47 Moore, op. cit., pp. 52, 60 et seq. 



98 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

all classes, and in the late sixth century its power was at its 

height. The happiness of the initiated dead is described in 
Pindar. 4 8 

Onamacritus was but one of many religious prophets and 
reformers of this age. Epimenides, the Cretan, who was sum- 
moned to Athens early in the sixth century at the command 
of Delphi to purify the city, was perhaps the most famous 
of these seers. Athens needed to be cleared of the guilt that 
had rested upon her since the murder of Cylon and his fol- 
lowers, when suppliants, by the followers of the Alcmaeonidae, 
and the Cretan was appointed to the task.*^ In addition to 
purifying sacrifice and ceremonies, he built new temples and 
remodelled various religious rites. ^*^ He modified mourning 
customs, "introducing certain sacrifices shortly after the fune- 
ral, and abolishing the harsh and barbarous treatment to which 
women were for the most part subject before in times of 
mourning." ^^ Long afterwards a statue in his honor still 
recorded the reverence and gratitude felt towards him by the 
Athenians. ^^ Purification for murder or for other forms of 
sacrilege was the usual practice. It was formerly thought that 
Purification was post-Homeric and oriental in its origin, but 
it now seems probable that it was established in Greece and 
Crete in earlier times. ^^ 

The influence of hero-worship as an active element in the 
religion of historic Greece was undoubtedly great, although 
Andrew Lang's claim that it was the most active element 
seems somewhat exaggerated.^* Dr. Fairbanks contends that 
"The worship of men as heroes after their death is not attested 

48 Pindar, 01 II. 53-83. 

49 Diogenes Laertius, Epimenides, I. no; Herodotus, V. 71; Aris- 
totle, Ath. Const., I. 

5 Plutarch, Solon, 12. 
^^Ihid. 

52 Pausanias, I. 14.4. 

53 C/. Farnell, L. R., "Purification" (Greek), in Encyclopedia of 
Religion and Ethics (Edinburgh, 1908-1918). 

54 Andrew Lang, op. cit., p. 125. 



^RELIGION 99 

before the fifth century B.C., and it was not common until 
considerably later." ^^ There is evidence to show, however, 
that heroization as well as hero-worship was existent, if not 
established practice, in the sixth century. Founders of cities 
were frequently heroized. Although many of these heroes 
were legendary, the case of Miltiades furnishes an instance 
where an historical character was so honored. ^^ The institu- 
tion of hero-worship was often directed by the oracle of Delphi. 
Early in the sixth century, when Cleisthenes of Sicyon wished 
to put down the worship of Adrastus because he was an 
Argive, the oracle refused to allow Adrastus to be driven 
out.^*^ Cleisthenes therefore introduced a new hero, Melan- 
ippus, from Thebes, and, having given him a precinct and 
shrine, transferred to him the sacrifices and festivals that had 
formerly belonged to Adrastus. ^^ Honors were ordinarily 
paid to a hero at his grave. ^^ The same hero, however, might 
be worshipped at several different places, as Adrastus was at 
Sicyon, at Megara,^^ and at Athens. ^^ The increasing appear- 
ance of Theseus on early red-figured ware shows his growing 
popularity as an Athenian hero.^^ 

Alongside of the heroes, the worship of the gods went on 
in much the same way. Shrines or temples were built in 
sacred precincts, festivals were held and sacrifices offered. 
The great gods had local epithets and under these names they 
were worshipped in various places, as Artemis Orthia at 
Sparta, or Zeus Lycaeus on Mt. Lycaeus. Indeed they were 

55 Fairbanks, Arthur, A Handbook of Greek Religion (New York, 
1910), p. 166. 

56 Herodotus, VI. 38. Herodotus records that on the death of 
Miltiades the people of the Chersonese "offered him the customary- 
sacrifices of a founder; and they have further established in his 
honor a gymnastic contest and a chariot-race." 

^^Ihid., V. 67. 

59 As to lolaus. Pindar, 01 IX. 98 seq. 

60 Pausanias, I. 43.1. 
^^Ibid., I. 30.4. 

62 Bury, op. cit., p. 201; Walters, op. cit., vol. i, p. 418; vol. ii, 
p. 188. 



100 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

still local rather than national divinities. The priests and 
priestesses who had charge of their worship did not form a 
separate caste. They were merely men and women selected 
to perform certain religious duties on behalf of the people, 
and as religion was not elaborately organized, they did not 
attain any great power. Perhaps the priests at Delphi might 
be considered the only exception to this rule. Of the custom 
of dedicating gifts to the gods as thankofferings or as pay- 
ment of vows, the inscriptions on sixth century votive offerings 
bear witness. ^^ A cornice of the altar dedicated by Peisistra- 
tus, son of Hippias, still remains.^* 

Sacred spots, temples and altars were places of refuge at 
which suppliants might seek safety. However great the crime 
he had committed, such a suppliant was supposed to be beyond 
human vengeance. Unfortunately the rights of suppliants were 
not always observed. That barbarian Persians should not 
keep the law is not surprising, ^^ but Greeks also were some- 
times guilty of its violation. ^^ The famous seventh century 
case that brought the curse on the family of the Alcmaeon- 
idae has already been mentioned. ^"^ The violator of a sup- 
pliant, according to Theognis, never could escape the just 
punishment of the gods.^^ Usually the sacredness of soip- 
pliants was recognized.®^ When it was impossible for the 
suppliant to go to the temple, it might be said that the temple 
was occasionally brought to the suppliant, as was the case 
when the Ephesians stretched a rope from the temple of 
Artemis to their city, in order to dedicate their city to the 
goddess, when they were being besieged by Croesus. "^^ 

63 To Demeter, Kaibel, 741; to Athena and Hera, Kaibel, 742; 
to Zeus, Kaibel, 743; to Hera, Michel, 1147, and Dittenberger, 10; 
to Artemis, Michel, 1169; etc. 

64 Thucydides, VI. 54; Hicks and Hill, io=Michel, 1019. 

65 Herodotus, VHI. 53. 

66/6tU, I. 158-160; V. 46; VI. 91. 
^T Ibid., V. 71; Aristotle, Ath. Const., i. 

68 Theognis, I43-I44- 

69 Herodotus, III. 48; VI. 108. 
TO Ibid., I. 26. 



RELIGION lOi 

Of great importance in the conduct of military, political and 
private affairs was the influence of the soothsayer. Every 
army was accompanied by such a prophet, who conducted 
sacrifices and interpreted portents before the battle. '^^ In the 
Persian War not only the Greeks used them,'^^ j^^^ e,Ytn Mar- 
donius employed an Elean soothsayer, who sacrificed by Greek 
rites before the battle of Plataea.'^^ Elean seers were the most 
famous, especially those belonging to the family of the lam- 
idae.*^* While the lamids were of great note, they did not 
monopolize the business, and soothsayers are mentioned who 
came from Acarnania,''^^ from Phigalea in Arcadia, ''^^ from 
Leucadia,"^^ and from other places. "^^ Soothsayers were often 
able to give shrewd human advice, as well as to interpret the 
will of the gods. Tullias, an Elean, aided his side to a victory 
over the Thessalians by persuading them to attack at night, 
having camouflaged themselves with white armor and chalk. "^^ 
Peisistratus was persuaded to attack the city on his second 
return by the prophecy of Amphilytus.^^ An Elean soothsayer 
belonged to the court and immediate following of Polycrates.^^ 

The chief sources, however, from which men might learn 
the will of the gods, were the oracles. Of these the Delphic 
oracle of Apollo Pjrthios was chief, and it achieved, in fact 
as well as in legend, the honor of being the centre of the 
Greek world. Not merely did it supervise the morals and 
religion of the Greek states, but it wielded an enormous influ- 
ence on their political life. The minor oracles too had more 

71 Herodotus, VIII. 27. 
-^^Ihid., IX. 33, 38, 92. 

'^^Ihid., IX. 2)7 • Persian sacrificial ceremonies differed from Greek. 
Cf. Herodotus, I. 132. 

"7 4 Pindar, 01 VI. 22-76; Herodotus, V. 44; IX. 2>?>. 

"^5 Plerodotus, I. 62. 

'r^Ibid., VI. 83. 

'^Ubid., IX. 38. 

T 8 Ibid., IX. 92. 

79Pausanias, X. 1.8, 11; Herodotus, VIII. 27. 

80 Herodotus, I. 62. 

»^Ibid., III. 132. 



102 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 

than local fame. Dodona, whose ancient oracle was said to 
be related to that of Ammon in Libya, ^^ exercised power from 
a very early period, ^^ and although it was especially prized 
by the neighboring Aetolians, Acarnanians, and Epirots,^* its 
advice was also sought from afar.^^ Other famous oracles 
were those of Trophonius at Lebadeia,^^ and of Apollo at 
Abae.*''' The greatest oracle in Asia Minor was that at 
Branchidae (Apollo) near Miletus. ^^ 

The consultation of oracles was open to barbarians as well 
as to Greeks. Gyges of Lydia and Midas of Phrygia were 
said to have early sent gifts to Delphi, which implies their 
use of the oracle. ^^ Croesus consulted many oracles and 
having found that at Delphi most trustworthy rewarded it 
with many rich and beautiful gifts. ^^ During the Persian War 
Mardonius consulted numerous Greek oracles. ^^ Indeed bar- 
barians frequently patronized Greek religion, — Croesus pre- 
sented gifts to the temple of Ephesian Artemis, to Thebes, 
and to other places ;^^ Datis made offerings on the altar at 
Delos.^* Amasis of Egypt sent statues and other presents to 
Greek temples at Gyrene, Lindos, and Samos,^* and aided the 
Delphians to rebuild their temple after its destruction by fire.^*^ 

One of Delphi's most important privileges was the right of 

82 Herodotus, II. 54-57; Strabo, VII. fr. i, Palatine Epitome. 
8^ Odyssey, XIV. 327; Strabo, VII. 7.10. 
84Pausanias, VII. 21.2, 

85 For example, by Croesus. Herodotus, I. 46. 

86 Herodotus, VIII. 134; I. 46; Strabo, IX. 2.38; Pausanias, IX. 
39-5 seq. 

87 Herodotus, I. 46; VIII. 33, 134; Pausanias, X. 34.1. 

88 Herodotus, 1. 46, I57- 
»^Ibid., I. 14. 
^oibid., I. 46-51. 
9i/&< VIII. 133-135. 

^^ Ibid., I. 92; Hicks and Hill, op. cit., 5- 
»3 Herodotus, VI. 97- 
94 7fetU, II. 182. 
^^Ibid., II. 180. 



RELIGION 103 

directing colonization.^^ Dorieus's attempt to found a colony 
without consulting the oracle failed until he received the 
proper sanction. ^'^ Kings asked the advice of Delphi upon 
going to war.^^ The central authority of Delphi can be real- 
ized from the large number of references to it in Herodotus. 
It maintained its position by a policy of wise moderation in 
matters where the priests were competent to judge, and by the 
use of skillful ambiguity when this was impossible. It was 
occasionally considered guilty of succumbing to bribery, ^^ 
notably in the case when the Alcmaeonidae persuaded it to 
tell the Spartans repeatedly to free Athens. ^^^ On the whole 
its record was a clean one, and long after it was called the 
most exempt of all the oracles from deception. ^^^ 

In the sixth century Delphi was a centre of honor and 
worship. Kings came at the head of delegations of citizens 
to offer hecatombs in behalf of their cities. ^^^ It was the 
custom to dedicate spoils from a victory to Pythian Apollo. 
The Cnidians thus offered a tithe of their spoils about 540 
g (^ 103 'pj^g Liparaeans brought Etruscan booty to Delphi 
towards the end of the century. ^^* The stoa erected by 
Athens was probably dedicated after the victory over the 
Boeotians and Chalcidians, 506 B.C.^^^ The gifts of foreign 
kings have already been mentioned, and inscriptions bear wit- 
ness that numerous works of art, from both public and private 
sources, were sent to Delphi in the sixth century. ^^^ In 

96 Herodotus, IV. 150, 155. 

97 Pindar, Pyth. IV. 5 seq.; Herodotus, V. zp2-43. 

98 Herodotus, I. 50; IV. 163. 
99/&JU, VI. 66. 

^^^Ihid., V. 63. 

lOiStrabo, IX. 3.6. 

102 Herodotus, IV. 150. 

1^3 Dittenberger, op. nf./ vol. i, p. 8. 

^^'^Ibid., vol. i, p. 14. Cf. Diodorus, V. 5; Pausanias, X. 16.7. 

105 Hicks and Hill, op. cit., ii=Michel, 1116. 

106 Prom the Potidaeans (Dittenberger, 15); from the sons of 
Xaropinus (Ibid., 16) ; from the Corcyraeans {Ibid., 18) ; from the 
Chians (Ibid., 19); from the Samians (Ibid., 20). 



104 



SOCIAL ASPECTS OF GREEK LIFE 



return the Delphians were accustomed to confer honors upon 
their benefactors. To Croesus and the Lydians they gave 
the right of precedence in consulting .the oracle, exemption 
from all charges, the most honorable seat at festivals and 
the perpetual right of becoming citizens of Delphi (c. 543 
B.C.)-^^^ So many honors must have been unusual, but the 
gifts of the Lydian King were unwontedly splendid, ^^® — 
couches and robes and three thousand beasts for sacrifice, 
ingots of gold and silver, statues and vessels of the same 
precious materials, and some of his wife's jewelry. The 
privilege of promanteia, i. e., of consulting the oracle first, 
was frequently bestowed, and was gained by the Naxians, 
Siphnians, and Chians,^^^ and probably by other cities, in the 
last half of the sixth century. 

Delphi was in this period the meeting place of the Amphic- 
tyony, which had originally centred at the temple of Demeter 
at Anthela near Thermopylae. ^^^ The name Amphictyony 
was applied to certain other religious leagues, such as that 
which met at Onchestus,^^^ and that which centred at Delos.^^^ 
The latter had fallen into decay in this period, and the attempts 
of Peisistratus to revive the ancient glories of the lonians by 
purifying the island were not fully carried out.^^^ The 
Delphic Amphictyony, then, seems to have been the only one 
of importance in this period. The Amphictyons had charge 
of the temples and precincts of Demeter and of Apollo, and 
supervised the property belonging to them.^^* When the 

10'^ Herodotus, I. 54. See Dittenberger, 7. 

108 Herodotus. I. 50, 51- 

109 Dittenberger, I. 17. 

iioStrabo, IX. Z-7, 447; Aeschines, II. 115 seq.; Pausanias, X. 
8.1, 2. 

iiiStrabo, IX. 2.33. 

ii2Thucydides, III. 104; "Hymn to Dalian Apollo," 146-164. 

113 Herodotus, I. 64; Thucydides, III. 104. The motive underlying 
this action of Peisistratus was the increase of his own prestige by 
gaining greater favor with the people, 

ii4Strabo, IX. 2.7. 



RELIGION 



105 



temple at Delphi was destroyed by fire, they had control of 
its rebuilding and of the levying of the necessary funds. ^^'^ 
Under their direction the Pythian Games were held.^^^ In 
international affairs their prerogatives were somewhat vaguely 
defined. Yet a beginning of interstate law is seen in the oath 
not to destroy any other Amphictyonic city, nor to cut it off 
from water in time of war or peace, and to make war on any 
who transgressed this rule or who plundered the possessions 
of the god.^^"^ About 595 B.C., the League made war on 
Crisa, because the Crisaeans had taxed in defiance of the 
Amphictyonic law those visiting the temple. ^^^ Cleisthenes 
of Sicyon was called to the command. When the city and 
likewise its seaport Cirrha were destroyed, its territory, on the 
advice of Solon, was consecrated to the god. 

Finally, Greek religion was much more a matter of state or 
family than of individual responsibility. Only in the mysteries 
did men enter into personal relationship with the gods. To a 
comparatively slight extent, therefore, were religion and moral- 
ity associated, yet they were not entirely separate. "No one 
without the aid of the gods gains virtue, neither city nor man," 
says Simonides.^^^ Such a thought was correlative to the 
command of Theognis. ''Reverence and fear the gods, for 
this prevents a man from doing or sa)dng unholy things."^^® 
Poets perhaps more than ordinary men experienced such 
feelings. They at any rate expressed the idea that the gods 
could aid mortals to follow the straight-forward paths of life 
and come to a contented death. ^^^ 

115 Herodotus, 11. 180; V. 62; Pausanias, X, 5.13. 

116 Pindar, Pyth. IV. 66. 
li^Aeschines, II. 115. 

118 The First Sacred War. Aeschines, III. 107 seq.; Strabo, IX. 
3.4; Pausanias, X. 37.5-8. 
11^ Simonides, 44. 

120 Theognis, 1179-1180. 

121 Pindar, Nem. VIII. 35 seq. 



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Zimmern, A. E. : Greek Commonwealth, Oxford, 1915. 



VITA 

LiDA Roberts Brandt was born in Philadelphia, Penn- 
sylvania, July 12, 1894. Her preliminary education was 
received in the Public Schools of Philadelphia. She was 
graduated from the Philadelphia High School for Girls in 
June, 1912. In 1916 she was graduated fom Wellesley 
College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, from which she received 
the degree of B.A. She was a graduate student in Colum- 
bia University in the years 191 6- 19 18, and received the 
degree of A.M. in 1917. She attended the Seminars of 
Professor Botsford and Mr. Caldwell, and the lectures of 
Professors Robinson, Hazen, Wheeler, and Giddings. 



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